Wildcards don't work in hosts - experimented with that a long time ago,
....as previously posted - and in case it's of use - lots of useful concepts
mentioned here :-
http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/#whatis



"RobertVA" <robert_c72athotmail@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:%235MBRCX4IHA.4272@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> John Wunderlich wrote:
>> RobertVA <robert_c72athotmail@invalid.com> wrote in
>> news:eK0rOTU4IHA.3480@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:
>>> Am I misunderstanding the use of the Hosts file to block web
>>> sites?
>>> I thought adding "127.0.0.1 acme.com" was supposed to
>>> override the Domain Name Server's data for the IP address when ANY
>>> browsers requested a page from acme.com (made up domain name),
>>> directing the browser to the local hard drive. Since the requested
>>> page probably isn't on my hard drive this should permit me to
>>> block things like advertising pop-ups from that site.
>>>
>>> So many sites won't function without JavaScript. I'm not
>>> enthusiastic about turning it off.
>>>
>>> However, I continue to find cookies from these domains when I scan
>>> for tracking cookies. Third party cookies are turned off in my
>>> browser security settings too. Today I was even subject to a
>>> pop-up window with one of the supposedly blocked domains
>>> displaying in the browser address bar!
>>> IF the sites opening these ads are using the site's actual IP
>>> address to bypass the Hosts file, should the address bar be
>>> displaying the IP address or the URL?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Keep in mind that the Hosts file is strictly a one-to-one mapping and it
>> will override DNS lookups. The line in your example will block access to
>> "acme.com" but won't block access to "www.acme.com" or
>> "anything.acme.com" or "ads.acme.com".
>>
>> -- John
>
> That would explain much of what's slipping through. Does whatever
> processes the Hosts file recognize any wild card characters like "*"? It
> would be handy if something like "127.0.0.1 *acme.com" would block
> anything from the "acme.com" domain including sub-domains ("www..." or
> not).