SOLVED Editing host file to block unwanted doubleclick.net or view.atdmt.com, etc.

[alfafs4]

Hello,

I use Windows 7 and recently my IE9 browser has been hijacked by doubleclick.net or view.atdmt.com and their variations, so that I'm stuck on the current page when I click the back button to go to the previous webpage. The url, view.atdmt.com, for ex:, fills my recent history shortcut menu when I right-click the back button.

On other forums, people have recommended going to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC, opening the 'Host' file, and adding the following lines using Notepad (after you show hidden folders). (You have to run Notepad as administrator, you can add the following lines to the Host file and it blocks all files supplied by those servers to the web page you are viewing).

127.0.0.1 googleleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 ad2games.com
127.0.0.1 ads.ad2games.com
127.0.0.1 content.ad20.net
and so on......

I keep getting attacked by diffferent variations of these URLs, like view.atdmt.net instead of .com or URLs with different extensions after .com. Can I just add an asterisk wildcard to the end of these URLs in my Host file so it covers all the variations that I might encounter, ex: 127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com\* or 127.0.0.1 content.ad20.* ? Or will that cause problems to the Host file?

Sincerely, alfafs39

P.S. I hope this is the right forum to ask this question in; sorry if it isn't.

 

[TrainableMan]

No, I'm afraid an * won't work in the hosts file.

An extensive list of bad and ad sites to put in your hosts file can be downloaded from MVPS Hosts. The list is usually updated quarterly.

There is a really handy tool in our Freeware DB called HostsMan which is great for editing the hosts file and also for automatically merging the list from MVPS Hosts (as well as a few others I personally don't use).

 

[alfafs4]

No, I'm afraid an * won't work in the hosts file.

An extensive list of bad and ad sites to put in your hosts file can be downloaded from MVPS Hosts. The list is usually updated quarterly.

There is a really handy tool in our Freeware DB called HostsMan which is great for editing the hosts file and also for automatically merging the list from MVPS Hosts (as well as a few others I personally don't use).

Thank you, TrainableMan. I wished the asterisk did work, but oh well. I will check out HostsMan.
I appreciate your help!