Hostal for Mac
IP address mapping tool.
$9.99
In English
Version 1.6When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Hostal overview
Hostal is a user friendly DNS database software for novices and advanced users. Allows local IP address mapping by creating a Hosts file for your computer. Local IP mapping can help speed up Web surfing, and allows content filtering and privacy protection by blocking designated hosts. Hostal ships with a large database of advertising and adult content sites and easily allows you to customize or add your own. Hostal supports Time to Live to prevent stale host mappings. For users on a network, Hostal detects an existing Hosts file and incorporates those settings as well. Hostal supports exporting hosts files for different platforms. Easy to use database makes managing a Hosts file a snap.
What’s new in version 1.6
Version 1.6:
- Adds the ability to block Google services, advertising, and tracking.
- Adds the ability to restore system default hosts file.
- Makes improvements to social media blocking.
- Makes improvements to ad blocking.
- Minor bug fixes and improvements.
Hostal for Mac
$9.99
In English
Version 1.6
Write a detailed review about Hostal
(6 Reviews of Hostal)
Comments
User Ratings
Nov 17 2016
Version: 1.6
This looks more to be more difficult to use than Gas Mask, and has several negative comments. The ONLY reason it doesn’t have a half-star rating is because of one obviously uneducated review from 5.5 years ago.
I seriously doubt it was "fantastic" then, when it hasn’t received a single positive review since.
I highly recommend using Gas Mask and one of the many blocklists available online.
I get mine from https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts.
I seriously doubt it was "fantastic" then, when it hasn’t received a single positive review since.
I highly recommend using Gas Mask and one of the many blocklists available online.
I get mine from https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts.
Nov 24 2014
Version: 1.6
Rewrote my Host file with 300-500 redirects to 0.0.0.0.
without my knowledge.
Be careful.
Thanks ... Ken
Apr 24 2014
Version: 1.5
The manual just tells about all the wonderful features. It does not explain how to access them. "Save as Mac Hosts File" produces a file with that name. Then what? At least an application like TextWrangler is able to update the actual hosts file, and this works.
So one is in effect paying for a list of proposed sites to add to the real hosts file, and you still need to use another application to actually do it.
If I've missed something, please explain and add to the manual!
Dec 22 2013
Version: 1.5
Two questions:
1) This hasn’t been updated in a year and a half. Is Northern Softworks still managing its "large database of advertising and adult content sites” and updating our apps when it calls home, or has that feature been abandoned too?
2) What happens if I uninstall Hostal from my OS 10.6.8 iMac? Will there then be 2 Hosts files but no app to recognize/integrate the one created by Hostal, and therefore the original Host file would take over? Any other lingering issues caused by uninstalling?