[SpamCop-List] Re: Blocking a notorius spam-friendly domain with my Hosts file

[Blammo]

On 19 Apr 2005 Michael Wise entered spamcop and left news:no-
9A6F6E.09365319042005 at news.cesmail.net:

> In article <mailman.137.1113927070.4572.spamcop-list at news.spamcop.net>,
>  "George Langford, Sc.D." <amenex at amenex.com> wrote:
> 
>> In reply to my wailing about esomniture.com, Brian (SnSR) wrote:
>> 
>> > try 127.0.0.1  stats.esomniture.com in your hosts file
>> 
>> Sigh.  I tried that, but to no avail.
> 
> That's because a hosts file is for outbound connections; not inbound 
> ones.
> 

Uhm, these are outgoing connections. The hosts file don't accept wild 
cards, not that I'm aware of anyway.
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/sbs-hosts-file.html

The domain uses a wildcard subdomain so that it can use tracking numbers in 
URLs rather than have to set cookies. The URL can be generated at the host 
site based on the cookies sent to it (either via client script or server 
script), or other info (referrer, current URL, etc.).
This is generally used as a method of tracking payment for advertising, not 
necessarily tracking you (the client). But of course it is up to you 
whether you want this information generated or not. I sometimes block sites 
I don't trust or that set excessive cookies.


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| Ric
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