# MSN messenger "hosts file"



## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

So I've gone into this HOSTS file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and the only entry is "127.0.0.1 localhost", which is how it's supposed to be apparently. Yet my msn continues to indicate that the problem is the hosts file. 
Help plz?


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## Frank4d (Sep 10, 2006)

That looks fine. It may be possible that you have more than one hosts file, which you should not have. If the other hosts file gets loaded, the real one will not.


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

Frank4d said:


> That looks fine. It may be possible that you have more than one hosts file, which you should not have. If the other hosts file gets loaded, the real one will not.


Well I suppose I should note that when I initially went in that folder there was no HOSTS file. So I did a search and found the file and put it in the etc folder.


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## TOGG (Apr 2, 2002)

What happens if you put 'Hosts' in a 'Find Files' search of your C drive?

If you have a program like Spybot Search & Destroy you should definitely have quite a large hosts file, and there are others that can be downloaded.

You don't say what the exact problem is, and I don't use MSN so I don't have any experience of it. Are they suggesting that you are unable to access it because its URL has somehow been added to a hosts file?


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

TOGG said:


> What happens if you put 'Hosts' in a 'Find Files' search of your C drive?
> 
> If you have a program like Spybot Search & Destroy you should definitely have quite a large hosts file, and there are others that can be downloaded.
> 
> You don't say what the exact problem is, and I don't use MSN so I don't have any experience of it. Are they suggesting that you are unable to access it because its URL has somehow been added to a hosts file?


Searching with that criteria is how I found the file in the first place. It wasn't in my etc file for some reason, and apparently it is supposed to be. The file only contains one entry, which is the default "localhost" one.

The troubleshooter tells me "Your hosts file contains MSN Messenger related entries which may interfere with name resolution."

I have AVG, Ad-Aware, and Uniblue RegistryBooster 2 and have run scans with all of them.


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## TOGG (Apr 2, 2002)

I'm not sure what's going on then! MSN appears to claim to be able to diagnose your problem remotely (if that's possible) and to know about entries in a Hosts file you don't seem to have!

If I do that search in my XP Home I get five files in system32/drivers etc. and one elsewhere referring specifically to SpywareBlaster. Three from system 32 and the SpywareBlaster one are all 91KB and look like this;

"# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
# Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy
127.0.0.1	babe.the-killer.bz
127.0.0.1	www.babe.the-killer.bz
127.0.0.1	babe.k-lined.com" [the Spybot entries then go on for several hundred lines!]

Obviously, your file stops after the first 127.0.0.1 entry, so I don't see how MSN can claim that that is where your problem is (unless you have another hosts file on a different drive or partition?).

I'm sorry I can't be any more help. I don't know if there is any malware that can produce this type of behaviour for things like MSN. I have read that there are things that will block access to security sites so that antivirus and similar programs can't update.


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## TOGG (Apr 2, 2002)

I've only just noticed the 'Sticky' at the top of this Forum, have you looked through it?


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

The thing I found odd is that the hosts file wasn't originally in the etc folder, and when I did find it using search, it didn't really indicate where it was it was initially before I moved it into the etc folder.


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

TOGG said:


> I've only just noticed the 'Sticky' at the top of this Forum, have you looked through it?


You meaned the pinned thread in the All Other Software forum regarding msn messenger? Yes I have.


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## ACA529 (Nov 16, 2005)

Is your system clock up-to-date?


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

ACA529 said:


> Is your system clock up-to-date?


Haha, I heard that can have some kind of affect. But yes it is.


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## ACA529 (Nov 16, 2005)

Tractatus said:


> Haha, I heard that can have some kind of affect. But yes it is.


Yeah, I was getting the same message and all I had to do was update my system clock and that fixed it.


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## Tractatus (Aug 23, 2007)

If you can believe it, I logged onto my computer today and my MSN started up just as it normally would and I had no problem signing in or anything. Computer magically fixing itself ftw.


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