WARNING: Zemana Antilogger Premium wipes out the HOSTS file.
INTRO: For new users that may not be familiar with a HOSTS file, you should do some research to learn about it and what it is for. Essentially, it works like DNS servers do. The browser has to change any domain name into a number (IP address) to directly access the site. DNS (Domain Name Service) is used for that purpose, however all that takes place via an outside communication request and response. The HOSTS file is your computer’s list of domain name to IP address. The browser checks every request with your local HOSTS file (if you have one) to see if there is an entry for the domain.
Originally, the HOSTS file was intended as a fast local/internal DNS service, however it has become more of a way to block known bad domain names instead. By setting the IP address to 127.0.0.1, which is your own computer’s internal IP address, a bad domain can be blocked. It implies the domain content is your local computer. As a result, nothing from that domain can be accessed since your computer does not have the content.
There are several websites that collect lists of domains that are harmful, and make these lists available as a download you can use to add/merge with your local HOSTS file. I use a program called HOSTSMAN that handles all the work including checking to see if any updates are available.
After doing a scan, Zemana reported a problem in my HOSTS file:
Hosts File
Status : Scanned
Object : %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
MD5 : 0BFA8EDF0DEBE95FA6A032AE7FF8255E
Publisher : –
Size : 3831
Version : –
Detection : Hosts Hijack
Cleaning Action : Repair
Related Objects :
Hosts file – 127.0.0.1 – yahoo.com
File – %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
This shows yahoo.com is an entry in my HOSTS file, which would prevent me from getting to yahoo.com. Since I can easily get to yahoo.com, I decided to investigate.
I have used a HOSTS file for many years. If yahoo.com is in my HOSTS file, I would like to know how it got there. The HOSTS file is only accessible to administration level users or applications. I always have a backup copy of my HOSTS file, plus I can check for online updates that I can add to my HOSTS file very easily. HOSTSMAN also allows me to have my own list of entries that I have created so I never worry about a program with administrative capabilities totally destroying my HOSTS file. It is a simple solution to rebuild my HOSTS file.
When Zemana Antilogger Premium finished its scan, I checked the HOSTS file entries. It does not have the yahoo.com entry as suggested by Zemana Antilogger Premium. Instead, it does have some yahoo.com subdomain ad servers (ads.yahoo.com) listed.
Since I can easily repair any entries removed by Zemana from my HOSTS file, I decided to let it do the suggested “Fix.” When the Zemana fix was complete, I rechecked my HOSTS file. I expected that it might remove the subdomain entries associated with yahoo.com. Instead, all entries in my HOSTS file had been removed, making me vulnerable to countless domains that could either harm my computer with tricks to get me to automatically download something or to show me an endless numbers of ads that I do not care about.
Maybe Zemana Antilogger Premium is sure it can handle any external threats that I might encounter while browsing the Internet, but if I were to close it or stop the several services it installed, I would lose any protection it added. Regardless, Zemana did not inform me what it was going to do.
I did not ask Zemana Antilogger Premium to make such harsh decisions for me. Whether I have a HOSTS file with my finely tuned entries is my decision. Until that problem is fixed, I will let as many people as I can know of this dilemma.
Finally, if you add the Zemana “real-time” protection option, you may notice a slowdown on system performance. I have 32 Gig DDR4 RAM on i7 6700k processor but still notice a significant reduction in performance. This has been a known situation for Zemana Antilogger Premium for some time now. I really wish they could improve this one feature. Otherwise, you are forced to look for alternatives that can protect your system without slowing things down.