Nslookup is a command-line DNS lookup, normally only available on Windows NT and above and Unix. I found a freeware replacement; you can download it here:

http://www.pc-help.org/trace/trace.zip

There are some other network tools in this file such as whois.exe; I am not sure what they all do. Anyway, I suggest putting NSLOOKUP.EXE in your C:\WINDOWS directory. This should be in USP2.1

FWIW, I am using nslookup.exe right now to check through all 110,000+ entries in my HOSTS file (3.6 MB) to look for dead hosts. I am using my normal DNS server that is chosen automatically through my dial-up connection. Does this sound like a good idea? Should I use multiple DNS servers? I am not really sure how DNS works.

Ok, it looks like this NSLOOKUP tools is not great, and netdig.zip might be better for my purposes: http://windows.meetholland.com/message/109129.aspx

But having nslookup is better than having nothing.

If u want to cleanup, sort + alphabetize the HOSTS file [I presume it's the 1 I sent u a while back] and remove dead servers, d/l this ZIP [145 KB]:
http://ftp.mdgx.com/files/HFT.ZIP
Contains everything u need for this purpose.
HOSTS guides + tools:
http://www.mdgx.com/modem.htm#HOS

Enjoy.

BTW: When you're done cleaning your HOSTS file, can u send me a copy, please?
Go to this page and click on the E-mail link:
http://www.mdgx.com/form.htm
Thanks in advance.

BTW: When you're done cleaning your HOSTS file, can u send me a copy, please?

Will do, but it may be a while.. CIP seems perfect and extremely fast but it unfortunately drains an enormous amount of system resources, usually causing an OS crash within seconds. This program was written in 1998 and I don't understand what the programmers were thinking. The crashes occur even with small files (~5000 hosts). I gave up on CIP after rebooting the fifth time.

nslookup.exe -type=A does its job fine but is slow (sometimes it hangs for a while waiting for a response from the DNS server). I'm using system() to call it from a C++ program. it will take over 100 hours (longer in real life) to do 110,000 hosts (note: sorted and deduped). Maybe I'll have it do 100 nslookups in seperate threads - I guess basically that is what CIP is doing.

I downloaded a newer version of CIP - 5.0 SR6 I believe.

It doesn't have the resource-draining OS-crashing bugs, but it doesn't appear to work either. After about 1000 hosts it kinda gives up and trying to Stop or close the program won't work.

I located an even newer version and I'll try it out later...

What I did to make CIP work:
I've cut+pasted small fragments from HOSTS into CIP, and that way it didn't crash, but just like u said, it takes forever to check all those servers.
That's why I've abandoned this altogether.

With such a huge HOSTS [> 61000 servers], it won't matter if 100-200 are removed or not, the browser will take the same time to load the entire servers list anyway, so it's probably not worth checking.

Can u post the link to the newer CIP version, please?
Thanks.

Hmm, just a question, but could AM deadlink be used[ala cut/paste] ? or is CIP a better prgm for this, have a nother older puter that am setting up barebones with 98se + USP only that could possibly be used for this while sleeping, am on dialup so obviously would take many nites of peaceful slumber

Can u post the link to the newer CIP version, please?

Sure, here is the CIP 5.00 SR6 (the non-crashing version), it is about 185 KB:
http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/CIP500.exe

If you search for CIP 5.00 SR7 you will find it but it is either 242 KB (cip500.exe) or 138 KB (cip500.zip), and it is much worse in my opinion and it crashes. It looks older actually. Try it here if you want:
http://sitelance.com/files/CIP500.exe
http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/fr.../105/cip500.zip

That's why I've abandoned this altogether.

I still haven't given up yet. I wrote a C++ program to launch many threads each doing gethostbyname(), and my program is faster than CIP I think (100 hosts a second on dialup). I could complete 110,000 hosts in an hour easily.

Edit: I've checked all 119,279 hosts. After the first pass, 105,000 hosts were validated. On the second pass, 200 more hosts were verified. I'll keep checking until I am no longer able to find valid hosts.

Wow, great work.
And many thanks for the links.

If it's not much to ask and if it's not too big, could u send me your C++ program [zipped] in email?
E-mail
I'd like to try it. I am on cable [4 mbit/sec], so it should take only a few minutes [hopefully] to check all 61000 hosts.
Many thanks in advance.
And then I can send u a "clean" copy of the HOSTS.

If it's not much to ask and if it's not too big, could u send me your C++ program [zipped] in email?

Sure, I'll send you everything tonight. If there is demand I will improve the program (it is awkward right now).

I have approximately 100,000 verified hosts now. I ran through my unverified hosts lists (13,000 hosts) a few times and it keeps verifying a dozen or so new ones each time. Probably this is affected by the DNS cache server I am using.

Azagahl, let me know if you decide to do anything w/your prgm, as I would be very interested in anything that fast on Dialup[all I can get in boonies]. Sounds like a surefire winner

azagahl:
Guess what, I found the last official CIP500 version [unfortunately it's the crashing SR7 ]:
http://www.radsoft.net/gallery/cip/CIP500.exe
Radsoft is the developer.
They don't distribute it anymore, because they went shareware, and CIP is now part of their "flagship" soft called Extreme Power Tools 2005.
Actually this is the same ver as the 1 u sent at:
http://sitelance.com/files/CIP500.exe

You're right, the best is SR6.

I've posted it SR6 here and also included it in HFT.ZIP:
http://www.mdgx.com/modem.htm#HOS

Thnx again.

Got the email. Thank you very much.

On my "tweaked" 98SE I couldn't make the exe run at all, it returns a memory address error.
I blame it on using UMBPCI mem manager. [?]
I'll let u know if I can make it work.

Wow... 3 MB [> 100000] worth of servers, that's quite an achievement.
And I thought I was the only 1 digging for HOSTS all over the net.

Did you want something Yikes?

FYI this thread is about optimizing the HOSTS file (commonly used to block access to spyware/malware/virus/offensive/etc.. websites).

ived tryed many host progams like adhost etc they do add host file to windows but nothing shows up in the zones? 98se

BTW, I recently learned something about the HOSTS file - even gigantic hosts files can be installed on XP.

Unfortunately, the DNS service will consume about ten times as much memory as the HOSTS file is in bytes! This can exceed 20 MB easily. Other OS's such as 98/ME/Linux do not have this problem.

Also, the DNS service will consume all available CPU until it fully loads the HOSTS file. This can take a few minutes. My first tests on XP seemed really random because I did not wait long enough for the DNS service to finish loading. I tried it again recently and it does reliably blocks bad websites.

ived tryed many host progams like adhost etc they do add host file to windows but nothing shows up in the zones? 98se

By "zones", are you talking about the security zones in Internet Explorer?

I doubt IE knows anything about HOSTS - the HOSTS file is used at a lower-level as part of Windows Sockets (e.g. ws2_32.dll) to provide the first used mechanism for looking up HOST names and converting them to IP addresses. The HOSTS file works automatically for any program that uses the Internet, so you shouldn't worry about stuff not showing up in the zones.

If you want to check whether your HOSTS file is working properly. then from a command prompt (command or cmd on 2000/XP), type "ping hostname" and you will see the resolved address. Or, if your host is disabled with an address such as 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0, then just open it in your internet browser and you will find it inaccessible.

9x/2000/ME/XP/2003 OSes with MS IE 5.5 or newer have a primitive "HOSTS-like" feature built-in, but u need to add/remove servers/IP addresses manually, 1 at a time:
Control Panel -> Internet Options [this refers to MS IE 6.0 SP1 settings] -> Security tab -> Restricted Sites -> Add/remove Web sites must be typed in -> OK.

All I have on HOSTS files is here:
http://www.mdgx.com/modem.htm#HOS

Hope this helps.