Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone know of one? I expect my hosts file will be increasing in size here shortly and I'd like to have something more powerful than gedit to manage it with. Suggestions? Thanks!

I always used nano to edit it.

You could also use vi(m) or one of the many other editors out there.

are you really talking about /etc/hosts? That file should essentially only contain 127.0.0.1 and ::1. Putting more stuff in there is just a hack; if you have a network to administer there is no way around setting up a DNS server.

That being said, on Fedora the system-config-network utility has a tab for /etc/hosts entries.

Yep. That's the file: /etc/hosts! While I do have a 'network to administer', it's only my wife's Mac, my 3 Thinkpads, a desktop, and 2 phones that connect through wifi. Quite simply, I'm looking to use this file to block a number of websites across my network. The plan is to use the file on my DD-WRT-based router. I used to use this hosts file method awhile back when my then Windows-based R50 was alone in the house. I used to use HostsMan in Windows. It worked quite well, but won't function fully under Wine. I've also tried HostsXpert and a few others that either don't have the "search for duplicate" feature or just won't work right period.

there is a firewall feature in ddwrt that allows you to do that with out manually editing. maybe only in the mega? or maybe its a plugin, i dont remember, i run ddwrt but i dont block websites. just ports and things like that, also ddwrt can handle local dns dynamically also so there is no reason to have a extended local hosts file.

I ended up using OpenDNS.com/.org. Works VERY well so far, though not fool-proof. Very simple to set up and I don't have to maintain it. Worth looking at for anyone who wants to keep inappropriate things at bay.