I followed the advice from the Anti-Virus and Malware section of this forum and installed the MVPS HOSTS file ( http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm ) and also according to advice, "in most cases a large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends to slow down the machine. This only occurs in W2000/XP/Vista. Windows 98 and ME are not affected." The HOST file i'm using is 600KB. I turned off the DNS Client as instructed but this hasn't made any difference. It appears only to be with the page load, the performance of the machine otherwise is fine. The page load was quick enough prior to the new HOST file. I've been using IE8. Any ideas?
Just to prove the point, I restored the original hosts file and restarted DNS Client. The browser flew at warpe speed once again. Being more in need of security rather than performance, I now have the MVPS HOSTS back and the DNS Client unstarted once again. The browser is back to running like a one-legged dog. Definately the big HOSTS file that's causing it and it appears that dissabling the DNS Client doesn't make any difference. This layer of security may prove to be too much of a sacrifice. I don't understand how the browser uses this file. I can imagine that the HOSTS file is read for each url it comes across, even if it's being redirected by a parasite, I can't imagine that there would be that many url's to verify. It shouldn't slow it to the degree that it is (about 4 sec til page load).
Interesting study I think.
IE8 has its own url bad boy list and use of the MVPS HOSTS file does slow down IE8 significantly
Reset the Host file and see if you notice a difference
Good to know Essexboy. Do you happen to know the name of the list file? Not that I don't trust MS (sarcasm) but can we be confident that the list is as comprehensive as MVPS and is it auto updated?
Thanks for the info.
No I do not know the total contents, but I do not use a modified Host file. I use IE8 and Spywareblaster which enters the bad URL's in the registry which makes it a lot faster
ok, good enough for me. I use Spywareblaster already. I'll reinstall the original HOSTS, which by-the-way only had the local host entry, and start the DNS Client again, thanks.
