TweakDUN Clone

This essay is about a suggested student project in Java programming. This essay gives a rough overview of how it might work. It does not describe an actual complete program. I have no source, object, specifications, file layouts or anything else useful to implementing this project. Everything I have to say to help you with this project is written below. I am not prepared to help you implement it; I have too many other projects of my own.

I do contract work for a living, which could include writing a program such as this. However, I don’t do people’s homework for them. That just robs them of an education.

You have my full permission to implement this project any way you please.

TweakDUN is a utility that looks at your windows\hosts. file in Windows or your winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. file in NT and refreshes the IPs in it by looking them up via DNS. Your clone ensures that the entries for the IPs in your quick DNS look-up hosts. file are accurate. A hosts. file might look something like this:

IP	domain	comment
127.0.0.1	localhost	#SKIP
# search engines
205.180.85.126	www.altvista.com
206.132.244.95	www.dogpile.com
198.3.98.99	www.excite.com
209.185.151.128	www.hotbot.com
209.224.233.192	www.networksolutions.com
198.41.0.8	www.lycos.com
# bix
199.93.4.67	x25.bix.com	# alternate
199.93.4.127	bix.com	# usual

To be compatible with TWEAKDUN, you should skip any entries marked with #SKIP like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost #SKIP

Unlike the real TweakDUN, your clone should not behave like a bull in a china shop and remove any comments or comment lines — text to the right of a #. This utility may be written in Java but only has application on Windows9x/NT. There may be equivalent files on other operating systems. You might tidy the file so that all the domain names line up nicely. One simple way to do that is to put lead zeros on each field of the IP address to pad them out to 3, though most people would probably prefer you not do that.

	Please email your feedback for publication, errors, omissions, broken/redirected link reports and suggestions to improve this page to Roedy Green :
	Canadian Mind Products
	mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
	Your face IP:[38.103.63.18]	The information on this page is for non-military use only.
	You are visitor number 3,521.	Military use includes use by defence contractors.
	You can get a fresh copy of this page from:	or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/Mindprod website mirror)
	http://mindprod.com/project/tweakdun.html	J:\mindprod\project\tweakdun.html