In reply to a post by jpm:

If it's pointing at the local machine I'd suspect either it was an attempt to block all Google services

Most likely this. Some less-competent "anti-spyware" has at points modified the hosts file to block "spyware". DNS blocking is ok when done properly, e.g. Pi-hole, but editing hosts is crude.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by jpm:

If it's pointing at the local machine I'd suspect either it was an attempt to block all Google services

Most likely this. Some less-competent "anti-spyware" has at points modified the hosts file to block "spyware". DNS blocking is ok when done properly, e.g. Pi-hole, but editing hosts is crude.

Thanks to all for the help. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that I edited the file myself to try and nail some other problem and forgot to revert but I have no recollection of doing so. It's an age thing.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that I edited the file myself to try and nail some other problem and forgot to revert but I have no recollection of doing so. It's an age thing.

If you had done it yourself, I would think that you would know what the line does and would not have needed to ask?

In reply to a post by DFScale:

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that I edited the file myself to try and nail some other problem and forgot to revert but I have no recollection of doing so. It's an age thing.

If you had done it yourself, I would think that you would know what the line does and would not have needed to ask?

Not necessarily so. I am an enthusiastic dabbler with no great understanding of many of the core concepts that iT experts hold as part of their basic knowledge.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

Being overly addicted to keeping copies of everything I have hostsold.txt still on the system and that shows that the line I removed was the last line in the file; The last 4 lines were:

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 accounts.google.com

What are the implications of that text?

that wouldn't have been a virus.

I guess you could craft it as a local direct and run a fake version of google on your machine via virus and that sent the creds to whoever wanted them.

Easier to create multiple routes on the net or just send a 100 million emails instead - that would yield better results