After watching Free Republic disappear and reappear three times yesterday, I edited the hosts file as shown and restarted the browser; and I have seen no problems since. If the DNSs are still messed up, I'm no longer being affected.
I was still having problems as of 10 minutes ago.
As for iPads, you can’t do anything like this on an iPad unless it’s jailbroken. :(
nslookup on freerepublic.com currently shows that the domain does not exist. It’s been disappeared down the internet memory hole. Someone better buy it quick.
The “hosts” file entry bypasses the DNS look-up and goes straight to the IP listed...so you won’t ever have DNS errors on FR. If you want to check if your DNS is OK with FR again you’ll have to remove the FR hosts file entry.
Also, for OS X/Mac users, here is the “hosts” file info.:
http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/edit-hosts-file-mac-os-x/