Hosts file content

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

IP v6 perhaps?

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).

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

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