DNS host search order

I'm running XP Pro in a 500+ client environment. I am trying to use a
"poor-man's solution" to blocking certain web sites by redirecting the DNS
names x.com and www.x.com to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file. This is the same
thing that spybot uses to prevent certain malware from "phoning home."
Somehow however, x.com and www.x.com are still being resolved through, I
suspect, DNS. It's almost as though DNS resolution is occurring before the
hosts file, or even the local cache, if I do a "ipconfig /flushdns" I've
looked in the registry and the lowest setting for the following key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Tcpip\ServiceProvider)
is for LocalPriority followed by HostsPriority, DnsPriority and NetbtPriority.

What could possibly be affecting this? Thanks.

Hi
Since it involved 500 computers may be this is a better choice.
http://www.opendns.com/start/
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"Joe." wrote in message
...
I'm running XP Pro in a 500+ client environment. I am trying to use a
"poor-man's solution" to blocking certain web sites by redirecting the DNS
names x.com and www.x.com to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file. This is the
same
thing that spybot uses to prevent certain malware from "phoning home."
Somehow however, x.com and www.x.com are still being resolved through, I
suspect, DNS. It's almost as though DNS resolution is occurring before
the
hosts file, or even the local cache, if I do a "ipconfig /flushdns" I've
looked in the registry and the lowest setting for the following key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Tcpip\ServiceProvider)
is for LocalPriority followed by HostsPriority, DnsPriority and
NetbtPriority.

What could possibly be affecting this? Thanks.

Hi
Since it involved 500 computers may be this is a better choice.
http://www.opendns.com/start/
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"Joe." wrote in message
...
I'm running XP Pro in a 500+ client environment. I am trying to use a
"poor-man's solution" to blocking certain web sites by redirecting the DNS
names x.com and www.x.com to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file. This is the
same
thing that spybot uses to prevent certain malware from "phoning home."
Somehow however, x.com and www.x.com are still being resolved through, I
suspect, DNS. It's almost as though DNS resolution is occurring before
the
hosts file, or even the local cache, if I do a "ipconfig /flushdns" I've
looked in the registry and the lowest setting for the following key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Tcpip\ServiceProvider)
is for LocalPriority followed by HostsPriority, DnsPriority and
NetbtPriority.

What could possibly be affecting this? Thanks.