Hosts "file"

[twisted]

Does anyone know what the Hosts file is used for and is it OK to delete its contents using Notepad?

Here's why I ask: I used to frequent the boards here but have been unable to get on speedguide.net as well as a few other sites. Each time I tried, I would get timed out. I also could not use windows update either. Today I tried to fix this and found a link on Microsoft's website instructing me to view the contents of the Hosts folder. When I found this folder there were a lot of sites listed, including speedguide and windows update. I removed them, and I can now access both sites. This seemed to correct my problem.

Can I delete all of the contents of this folder to avoid any other problems or will this just create new problems. Let me know and I'm glad to be back.

Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to give me.

[Mondiol]

Hey there...
The hosts file instruct your computer not contact the servers, sites and banners contained in that list. My hosts file is a list of hundreds of ad servers (such as 123banners.com
)which prevent annoying ads to load and thus slowing down the connection. The problem is if a non-ad address gets into that list it won´t be shown in your browser.
Hope that was of some help.
Mondiol