In some situations, these hacks can be perfectly legal. Someone using it in this fashion might have 23 entries in the file. This is not a valid use of the /etc/hosts file. Many expensive software packages, primarily Adobe and Microsoft products, will 'phone home' to their corporate offices to verify that the software being used on someone's Mac is a valid and properly licensed version of the software. Someone using it in this fashion might have 2000 entries in the file. You will have to ask the people who are pushing that list. What is 'undesireable' you ask? Good question. There are web sites promoting the use of /etc/hosts to block certain 'undesireable' websites by redirecting them to a non-functional server. Someone using it in this fashion might have 5 entries in the file. This is what the /etc/hosts file was designed to do. Then, when it is perfect, they can publish it to the real server for everyone else to see. No one on the internet will see the version of the site under development.

This allows them to develop a web site for and test it while running on their Mac. Developers can add entries like that redirect back to localhost.

Developing internet services on your Mac.

After this drag the py from desktop to /etc folder, once you see this file successfully moved in to the /etc folder then rename it as 'Hosts'. Now delete the Hosts file which is in your /etc folder.

Mac - CS3 Licensing error, can't activate.

You can prevent the application from calling-home by manipulating the system's Hosts file.

HowTo: Block Adobe Activation using the Hosts file (Updated Jan 2014) Adobe applications includes an activation mechanism since version 8.0 (CS) and later.

Block Adobe Photoshop CC activation outbound link using windows host file or firewall is a common question for everyone.

Block adobe activation Steve Stonebraker posted this in Howto, Mac, Windows on March 12th, 2011 To block adobe from phoning home you need to modify your hosts file: on a mac.

By default, the /etc/hosts file is relatively simple.

To open it, simply double-click and it will display the file’s contents in TextEdit (or the text editor of your choice).

Block adobe hosts file mac