HostsMan is a freeware application that lets you manage your Hosts file with ease. Features online update of hosts file; enable/disable usage of hosts file; open Hosts file with one click; merge two hosts files; built-in hosts editor; prevent other programs of writing to the hosts; scan hosts for errors, duplicates and possible hijacks; find how many host names; easily install newly downloaded hosts file; create encrypted backups of your hosts file; resolve host names; keep log of latest blocked sites; exclusion list and more.
Rated 50/50 by DKDude at May 6, 2008
This app. ROCKS, thanks for a great program.
Rated 50/50 by Diam0nd at May 6, 2008
What exactly does this do? Is this really an ad blocker?
Rated 50/50 by yokozuna at May 7, 2008
Very good program! @Diam0nd Hosts file filtering is something what has always been present in UNIX machines. It filters machines with certain IP addresses - can be parental, spyware, ad protection - or whatever else. Put simply, the machines are not accessible from your computer and vice versa. You have to remember though that you cannot program certain protocols in hosts file so you block them for good independently what is transmitted from/to the addresses.
Rated 40/50 by Undesired Username at Sep 29, 2008
What's wrong with Notepad? Well, I thought it was obvious, but HostsMan makes life easier. First of all, and obviously, it makes updating the hosts file easier. This is especially true for people who don't simply use an entire third-party hosts file as-is, but use a customized file instead. Why would you want to visit a web site and manually download a ZIP archive, then extract it, and all that? And if you have a customized hosts file, you have to copy/paste... Why, just why? You can add whitelist items, so when you update the list, you don't have to manually remove lines that point to domains you don't want blocked. Why would you want to use a text editor for all of this? Using Notepad is like shooting elephants with a BB-gun.
Rated 20/50 by ninjeratu at Sep 29, 2008
What's wrong with notepad? The hosts file is a textfile and this program is like shooting mosquitos with a bazooka. Still getting 2/5 because it works. Get a nice site blocking hosts file ( http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt for example) and you're set to go. Problem with large hosts files is that it's stored in RAM at startup and that Windows always will query the file when doing DNS lookups (even when not browsing). This can be counter productive if you only want to block ads and phishing sites in IE/Firefox. You're much better off getting AdMuncher or a plugin for Firefox. Seriously.
Rated 50/50 by Diam0nd at Oct 30, 2008
Very slick app (gui-wise), that does exactly what it says it does. yokozuna: Thanks for your answer, man! :D
Rated 50/50 by anomoly at Jul 7, 2009
What's wrong with notepad? Hmm, It can't disable or reenable your dns service, It won't update your host file/s, It doesn't have an exclusion list feature, It can't resolve host names. As well hostsman is portable so you can use it without ever installing & the exe is compressable. It also includes http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip by default. I have sometimes needed to disable certain hosts in order to view various picture url's.
Rated 50/50 by Aidans.Granny at Nov 5, 2009
Fantastic app! Love it! TY very much!
Rated 50/50 by purell at Jan 9, 2010
An essential program.
Rated 50/50 by poisonu at Jul 23, 2010
SUPERB !!