Custom Hosts File Redirecting

I use Hostsman custom hosts file, when I go to some pages such as techrepublic.com it always redirects it to a search page saying it can't find adclick.com or some other advertisment that the hosts file has blocked.

It will load the page but when it trys to load the ad it automaticaly redirects to a search page saying it cannot find such and such site and offers suggestions, so I can never see the actual page I want to look at.

I am using Vista and IE 7, this was not a problem in XP when using a custom host file I simply got a box where the ad was supposed to appear that said IE cannot display this page (meaning the ad) but the page itself was loaded an operational just the ad had been blocked. How to I fix this problem in Vista using a customs host file?

 

Actually that is the site I got the Hostman file from. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and it gives you several programs that automicatly keep your hosts file up to date. I am assuming this must not be Vista compatible?

I seem to have less problems with spyware etc when using a customs host file but wanted something that did it automaticaly without my intervening that is why I choose Hostman progrram when I had XP.

I don''t understand how using the program and doing it manually would make a difference. It's a Gateway page that I get when it redirects it saying it can't find exp. www.adclick.com. Or there other setting that might fix this problem. UAC is turned off so that is not conflicting.

 

Ok I read the page your referred me too. The following quote:

Modify Users Access Control (Administrators only)

Control Panel > Administrative Tools
Select: Local Security Policy (when prompted, click Continue)

In the left pane, expand Local Policies and click Security Options.
In the right pane, scroll down to User Account Control:
Double-click on: "Behavior Of The Elevation Prompt For Administrators In Admin Approval Mode "

In the drop-down box on the Local Security Settings tab
Select Elevate Without Prompting, Click Apply/OK.

Note: do NOT run Windows Vista with UAC turned off as this also turns off the "Protected Mode" in Internet Explorer.

By modifying the UAC I was able to get HostsMan to work and update the HOSTS file in Vista.
However, I don't have "Local Security Policys" listed in Adminstrative tools.
It also says that by "modifying UAC they were able to get HostsMan to work, I have no problem with it working and updating, just the problem I had with the pages being redirected to a search page when it bounces back from my hosts file that it can't find the ad it is trying to load.

I am the adminstrator of this pc, there is no option for adminstator sign in and no password either.

 

Ok so maybe it's not the custom hosts file causing the problem. I uninstalled Hostsman, however I still have ie spyads and spyware blaster installed. Could either of these be causing the problem.

Still when I go to a page and it is looking for an ad it redirects me to a search page saying it can't find such and such and will not let me view the page that I was on.

I did the settings as suggested for internet zone, what a hassle, I couldn't sign into any of my sites without 1st adding it to the trusted zone, so went back to default on that. It wouldn't even let my AVG IS start up.

So which program do you think might be causing this problem?

How can I turn this problem off of being redirected just because it can't load an ad on the page?

Ok I unisntalled ie spyads, that didn't work, I reset cookie handling from block 3rd party cookies that didn't help.

This is getting extremely frustrating!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ok, I uninstalled ie-spyads, uninstalled sypware blaster, disabled both windows defender and avg. I basically have left my computer vunerable to everything at this point and am still having the problem.

When the page cannot find the ad that is trying to load it automatically redirects it to a search page. I click on a page, it loads briefly and then the search page comes up

I am attaching the search page, maybe this might help you understand what I am talking about.

This has gone past frustrasting and is really ticking me off!!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 2023

Finally saw on the right hand side "What's this" and clicked on it, it explained that there was a "broswer error redirect" program installed and could uninstall through add/remove which I did, rebooted and finally I don't have this problem.

Would still like to know as it said in the article you linked to how to edit the UAC to allow hostman to work, right now I have UAC turned off using hostsman.

 

The browser redirect was a program installed by Gateway, it was not from a trojan, virus, spyware etc.

Still searching to edit the UAC, as I said I have it turned off, but in Internet Options under security it shows that "Enable protected mode" is checked and should be running however, in IE browser it says "Protected Mode: Off "