[font="Arial Black"]Hi all[/font]

This is my first post so I hope I get it right.

I am running Vista Business on 32bit platform. Plently of memory and HD space. Fairly secure. Good seci=urity software and constant updates, regular checks.

I was adding a couple of sites to the HOSTS file - which as you know is not so straightforward in Vista as it was in XP. I had read that it was a good idea to disable the DNS client when doing this. I did so. Safari immediately stopped working. It wouldf not open any site; however at the same time I could get Firefox 3 - my regular browser to work with no problem. As soon as I reenabled the DNS client, Safar worked fine again>

Can someone explain this? The DNS client service was for years one of the first services I switched off in XP. It had no effect on browsing. ( I was fan of Black Viper for quire a time and hatede to see all those useless services bloating up my computer). Since I ?? upgraded to Vista - I have left the services alone as there seem to be hundreds of new ones, and I have not yet seen a credible site with good - safe -advice on which ones vcan be safely cut out.

The only theory I have is that in Safari - which I really like for many of its features - there is a "privacy option" this allows simultaneouos clearing of tracks etc which added to CCClean and ATF clean I use regularly, to avoid cookies and tracking stuff. Could it be that the DNS resolver is required to do that?

Any ideas welcome.

Thanks

Tanimoto[/color][color="#FF0000"]

Hi, Tanimoto.
You posted your topic in the "tutorial" section of your forums.
This is not a tutorial, your topic seems closer to a call for help on a networking problem.
That's why I moved your topic here, in order to make it visible and allow people answering it.

Now, concerning your technical problem, I would like to have more info.
I would like to know where the problem is coming from.
Could you please try to ping one of the hosts you are familiar with ?
Simply ping one of the hosts you added in the host file.
Please try these three tests :
1) ping one host by it's name in the hosts file. For instance, in a cmd command line window, type "ping www.astahost.com" (without the quotes of course). Tell us if this ping is successful, this means that the name is correctly resolved.
2) ping the host by it's IP address in the hosts file (for instance "ping 208.87.blah.blah" (replace blah's by the exact numbers). This will show us if you have physical access to the site.
3) Open Firefox and in the URL field don't type www.astahost.com but put the IP address. This will tell us if your gateway is correct and if the routing works correctly.
Regards
Yordan
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P.S. maybe it would also wise if you could fix the "Hi all" thing in your post, it would show out nicer.