On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:22:35 +0100, LR  wrote:

>Spybot has the ability to "Lock" the hosts file into read only mode to 
>prevent it from being hijacked not turn it off.

Yes, I saw that, it sets the read only bit on the hosts file, I've not
set it to lock.

>It also has a "Hosts file" which can be entered into the windows hosts 
>file to block a number of known dubious sites. We use this on an XP 
>machine that everyone has access to.

In fact I might just try this just to see if spybot manages to
redirect to 127.0.0.1.

>You can check the internet connection settings in your browser to see if 
>a proxy has been set there.

I have 3 browsers, IE, Firefox and Opera none honour the hosts file
and none show a proxy being used.

I still think it's something that gets loaded before the hosts file
would be and then bypasses it.

AJH