Well I am always wondering what is the better way to block unwanted web sites and pests.

Firewalls offer Hosts and IP blocking.

I am aware what HOSTS and IP block do.

My question is "do I need both concurrently running in a firewall?"

From my point of view and experiences I tend to use IP blocking.

What have the firewall Gurus to say about?

Thx for advise

Edited June 4, 200917 yr by webfact

depends on how the blocking is managed, 3rd party lists, reactive blocking, etc?

Well, what if the host changes their IP? Blocking IP's on a large scale is a bad idea - unless you're blocking incoming connections - as you will be chasing the hosts to different IP's (which is a pain and probably impossible to manage on your own) and the IP's you're blocking may be hosting tons of other sites.

depends on how the blocking is managed, 3rd party lists, reactive blocking, etc?

3rd party lists