Ad And Stuff Host File Manager (AASHFM) provides additional hosts for your current hosts file from the ad and porn blocking database in the Ad And Stuff Blocker (AASB) Safari and the Porn And Stuff Blocker (PASB) extensions. As such, it can fix the hosts file to block ads and porn from all applications running on Mac OS, not just Safari.
Although it can work with AASB and PASB, AASHFM by itself will not be as good within Safari as AASB, or as good as ad and porn blocking extensions with Chrome and Firefox, because it is not designed specifically for web browsers. However, it is much better than having no ad and porn blocking at all for all web browsers and any other Mac applications that present ads and porn.
You might say that you can do this yourself - find an available list of ad and porn blocking hosts in a hosts file format and add them to the hosts file yourself. However, if you want to customize the list, you have to do that yourself. If you want to refresh the list, you have to do that yourself and redo the customizations again.
AASHFM keeps track of your original hosts file and allows you to modify it or specify hosts to be added or removed (whitelisted). When merging in an updated hosts file from a new version of the app, it will take into account your added and removed hosts when rebuilding the effective hosts file. And AASHFM will be updated regularly.
To have this app in the App Store and have it be able to modify the hosts file, it requires you to enter your password (the one you log into your Mac with) whenever the hosts file is going to be modified. If you were to manually edit the hosts file, you would have to do this anyway.
Specifically, each time the hosts file is going to be changed, you have to hit a Save hosts file button from a Save File dialog, confirm that you want to Replace the hosts file, and then enter your password. The app doesnt save the password. Assuming you only run the app when first installing it or updating to a new version, you are not going to do this that much. If you are an active hosts file modifier, you have to enter your password a lot to do this anyway. You can close the app after you have entered your password to update the hosts file.
Please email me at stuff at adandcrapblocker.com if you have any questions or complaints or you are getting ads you think should be blocked or you are noticing content that shouldnt be blocked is missing. One area that AASHFM cannot handle as well as AASB is when ads are being served from the same host as the other content for a site -- you cant block the ads without blocking other site content or the site itself. AASB and other ad blocking extensions for web browsers have other means to block these ads.
AASHFM has no network connectivity, so it cannot call home, and it does not serve ads itself.
