HostsOptimizer: How to keep the DNS Client service enabled with a big hosts file

http://forum.abelhadigital.com/index.php?showtopic=637

 

not sure it will work with big hosts file and in the past I had to abandon such non standard hosts file, from work/network environment where dns client is a must, as it simply caused machines to take ages to login in

 

That solution was found last year.

But, it won't be effective when talking about really large HOSTS file. You still have to disable DNS Client service. Setting it up to Manual will also make the system hang.

A better solution is to set up a BIND DNS server.

 

Actually it is VERY effective.

I'm using the HostsMan software with 3 merged hosts files:

• MVPS hosts
• hpHosts ads only
• Peter Lowe's ad list

I have the option to optimize hosts enabled and I also have the DNS Client in windows 7 enabled.

My browsing is instant, even with this large 3 in 1 hosts file.

EDIT: Note, if you don't use the Optimize feature and remove comments feature in HostsMan, there IS a slowdown.

 

I don't call that a large HOSTS file.

Consider a large HOSTS file something near, equal or superior to 500.000 entries.

I just tried it, again, a few days ago, since I haven't been using HOSTS file, and still aren't, and the system went to a crawl. To enter the session was a pain in th neck, even with DNS Client service set to Manual. I had to reboot in Safe Mode and then disable the service, then reboot and delete the HOSTS file.

 

You kid, right? As it is now it's size at half a megabyte, It's probably about a megabyte in size without optimization. The MVPS hosts file alone is about 700kb without optimization, then add the other two...

HostsMan says 22K+ entries from 3 hosts files, how do you plan on having 500k entries?

I disabled mine and browsing speed actually slowed down Keeping it enabled gives me no speed loss. This I only started noticing since I started using Windows 7. Windows XP was vice versa.

So now I enjoy blocked ads without needing plugins in various browsers that consume extra memory and slow browsing.

 

I'm running a HOSTS file that averages 250k - 300k entries using 6 sources without any slow down. I outlined my setup in a previous post.

I tried using the optimization in HostsMan, but it made my file harder to read for those rare occasions when I want to manually search for something and wasn't a benefit anyway due to the setup I use.

 

But, you're not making use of the HOSTS file itself. That's why you don't notice any slowdowns.

I don't make use of only those HOSTS file. I make use of more, plus other sources not under the HOSTS file format, plus my own research. Then I delete the duplicates and optimize the final HOSTS file with Hostsman. But, if I keep DNS Client enabled or even set to manual system crawls. As I mentioned before, I actually needed to boot into Safe Mode to disable the service.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x86. Maybe something to do with the machine itself.

Anyway, using a BIND DNS Server you won't need as much entries to block as one needs on the HOSTS file. For example, if blocking malicious-domain. com using BIND, all other sub-domains will also be blocked. Using a HOSTS file requires all sub-domains to be placed there in order to be blocked.

 

Yup very true. But using a hosts file is simple to the average user rather than setting up a bind DNS server. For me, if there is any slowdown, it's in the unnoticeable milliseconds.

But yeah, my claim that disabling the DNS Service slows down browsing is quite true, pages take about 2 seconds extra to start loading, could it be a x86/x64 thing I wonder?

I'm sure I had to disable it in Vista, but I cannot recall, that was 32bit.

 

Do you use a BIND DNS Server? If so which one? Is this something that can be run locally like Acrylic DNS or DNS Kong? I was using DNS Kong prior to Acrylic and it could accept wildcards. Does BIND need wildcards to block sub-domains or does it do it automatically? My programming skills are not that great, but I might be able to cobble together an AutoHotkey or Python script to parse the HOSTS sources down for use with BIND.