Hosts file content

[jmarendo]

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.5.8. My question is about the default content of the hosts file. Currently, this is what is in mine:

127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Lines 2 (broadcasthost) and 4 (fe80..) strike me as odd. Will someone please explain these lines to me? I would think I'd only have 'localhost' lines and even with the last one, it looks like it's referring to ::1 as a variable in the midst of the other mumbojumbo that looks suspicious to me. Thanks in advance.

Jeff

[jeffk]

IP v6 perhaps?

[vansmith]

That's what my hosts file says.

::1 is the IPv6 equivalent of 127.0.0.1 in IPv4 (source). fe80:: is "a link local address" in IPv6 (source).

[jmarendo]

Thank you for the replies so far. I'm beginning to think the contents of the file have not been modified by an outside party, which is part of the reason I posted this topic in the first place.

There was a retail site I was trying to browse but I couldn't get to some pages due to a slew of ad programs "transferring data from..." when a given page was trying to load. I thought perhaps something made it to my computer that was allowing such interference to happen. The hosts file came to mind, but I really don't know much about it.

If anyone has an additional thoughts on the hosts file contents I posted or any tips to deal with the surfing experience I described above, please reply. Thanks again.

Jeff

[vansmith]

If the site you were visiting is reputable, don't worry about the ads. Although they may be annoying, they won't be malicious.