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2ndalpha / gasmask

Hosts file manager for OS X
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New Feature: Request #89

Open ghost opened 8 years ago

ghost commented 8 years ago

Great product, which has worked flawlessly for me.

I was wondering if it would be useful to auto switch location based on wifi connection. For example I have two files, Home and Away, if the WIFI network is my home network, I think it would be useful to switch home, else away.

What do you think?

shokk commented 8 years ago

You are probably better off using ControlPlane for that. http://www.controlplaneapp.com

GitTheHellOutaHere commented 8 years ago

I've been wondering why one might want to use different hosts files for different locations, so this looks like a good place to get an answer.

I use an extensive hosts file with nearly 30k entries. I use it to keep my computer from connecting to addresses for various reasons, and I don't know why I'd want to allow them at one location and not another. They're just as dangerous/annoying whether I'm at a hotspot or at home. And they don't interfere with connecting to public Wi-Fi or slow the connection, so why open up my browser to all those blocked addresses?

Maybe someone like LetologyGitHub creates files specific to location/connection, so that's what I'm wondering. Mine is one giant file, and I want the entries blocked all the time and everywhere.

SainteCelery commented 8 years ago

Some people might want to block social media etc. while at work to keep themselves on track. For people who do a lot of international travel, the ad networks you're targeted by in Russia are going to be different than those in Italy. There could also be data security issues which require extensive blocking in one location to ensure the safety of the LAN, but which become crippling overkill when trying to scan through your rss feeds at a coffee shop. There are dozens of reasons people might want different filtering in different locations.

GitTheHellOutaHere commented 8 years ago

Thanks for the reply.

The part about other countries makes sense, I was only thinking of US travel. And I know nothing about LANs or corporate firewalls.

Although I don't do social media, they're not in my blocklist because sometimes my search results are found there.

SainteCelery commented 7 years ago

You're welcome. It's interesting to think of use-cases outside one's own. It's amazing, really, how many different ways a tool like this can be wielded.