Hi I am going crazy trying to figure out what is happening to my host file. I use a healthcare system at work that the database or hub is accessed via the internet. there is 3 comps on this network. One of the computers I will add the host file so that the healthcare program on my desktop knows where to find the hub. Well after about 6 hours with the comp on the host file will mysteriously be deleted and I can not access this program. The file is in windows\system32\drivers\etc. I did both virus scan and spyboot and norton says there is a trojan on it but it is blocked and has stopped replicating. I also had to reinstall the OS within the past week because the comp crashed due to this file. please help

jennyloew, if you for sure have ANY sort of trojan, confined or not, my first priority would be to clean it. Next, I'd download a copy of the file to my machine (you might need to update often) so it could be found just in case. My ken is that cleaning the trojan will set things right. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Hi, The Hosts file is a file that provides cross references between names and IP addresses on a private network. The names and IP addresses of the three PC's on your network may be in the Hosts file (although this is not required as there are other ways for PCs to find each other on a network). The Hosts file is a simple text file, and I assume from what you say that there is some physical connection (the hub) inside your building that has to be 'found' for your healthcare program to work. If you connect to the database over the internet, then a Hosts file should not be required as translation between name and IP address is done by DNS servers on the Internet. As your Hosts file is being deleted it may be that your anti-virus/firewall program has wrongly identified it as being infected and is deleting it. If you have a clean copy of the required Hosts file from a safe source or you create it yourself with Notepad, then tell your Anti-virus program that this Hosts file is safe and is not infected. There is usually an exception list that lets you identify safe files. Have you talked to the IT people responsible for this healthcare system. Regards

norton says there is a trojan I've got $50 on Norton being the culprit. Any takers?