Repeat the second command to ensure that this file has not be tempered with. Once you have the URL for the this new list (for example the blu list URL is ), replace the StevenBlack URL in the command above with this new URL. Delete it and choose another hosts file, for example from this list. If there's any output (e.g: the command returns text), the file might have been tampered with. In the same terminal window, type the following command:īash grep -E '^(\s*)\s*.*\.*' hostsĪnd then press Enter. pointing to a phishing address that steals your credit card information). Although unlikely, it's important to inspect the contents of the file, to ensure it does not contain malicious entries (e.g. This command will download the Steven Black list to your current directory. Then, type the following command into the prompt:Īnd press Enter. Start by opening a Finder window and then navigate to the Applications > Utilities folder and open the Terminal application. In this guide, we suggest you use the unified hosts list from Steven Black to block ads and trackers as it is updated frequently. ads, trackers, fake news, social media, etc.). The lists of ad-server and tracker hosts are provided and maintained by the online community, and you can pick several lists to block different types of services (e.g. To setup DNS-level ad-blocking, we will add a list of known ad-servers and trackers to the hosts file and point them to an empty address ( 0.0.0.0), thus ensuring the requests are blocked. If the host-name is not present in the file, the operating system asks an external DNS server to resolve it. Typically, your operating system first checks your system's hosts file for an address to the host-name. As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g. I updated my router settings, applied them, and suddenly the “broken” university page loaded fine on all our networked devices.On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Had CenturyLink changed its DNS server addresses without, say, notifying its customers? Sure enough, CenturyLink’s help page on DNS server addresses showed ones I hadn’t seen before and weren’t set up on my router. (Go to System Preferences > Network, select Wi-Fi, click Advanced, click DNS, and click the at the bottom-left corner to add one or more custom entries.) These custom entries override the DNS server info at the router level in favor of the ones you picked.Īt this point, I had a hunch. But on my Mac laptop, I have messed with them at times just for that computer, for testing and for speed. In my case, CenturyLink is our provider, and I likely hadn’t changed our DNS server numbers for as long as I can remember. That assignment points your device’s DNS requests to the router, which in turn relays them to the DNS servers it has configured in its settings. When you connect a Mac, iPhone, or other internet-capable hardware to a local network via Wi-Fi or ethernet, nearly all home networks automatically assign it a local network address. Some people in the last decade-plus have changed those settings to point to Google other free or paid DNS services. You may never have to change those details. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: you can’t use DNS to look up a name if your network or devices don’t know how to find a DNS server. This almost always includes the IP addresses of two DNS servers–primary and secondary–which you have to enter in numeric form. On most home networks, your ISP provides you details to enter manually into your router setup to bootstrap access. You can set the DNS servers for a network interface, like Wi-Fi, in macOS (left), or on a typical router (right).
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