Hi All,

I downloaded the hosts file from this URL to help block some ads and popsup, etc.

Anyway, I noticed that some websites take a long time to load (mostly time spent waiting for some of the redirected hosts). I followed the advice on the page to disabled my DNS client, but it didn't affect the speed. If I revert to my original hosts file, the websites that have been slow come up lightning fast.

As an example, http://www.harleydavidson.com/

With the hosts file, firefox displays:

"Waiting for track.roiservice.com" for a good 20 seconds before it finally seems to time-out and allows the rest of the page to load.

Another example, http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/search.php

Here, firefox displays:

"Waiting for edge.quantserve.com" for a good 22 seconds before it finally seems to time-out and allows the rest of the page to load.

This is obviously redirected these domains to my localhost which doesn't resolve them. What setting affects this delay timeout?

I'm using Windows XP Pro 64-bit. I should add that if I browse to the same website under XP Pro 32-bit, there is no problem - it loads up just as fast with the custom hosts file as without it so I'm thinking it's something unique to the x64 Windows.

Thanks for the ideas, all.

Edited April 4, 200818 yr by graysky

You need this . The latest version I've seen is 1.42, but the original site seems down ATM.

GL

You need this . The latest version I've seen is 1.42, but the original site seems down ATM.

GL

Thanks man, edexter is very light and fast and solves this problem. For others out there experiencing this problem, you can follow my instructions at this url for converting the HOSTS file to an adblockplus filter which also works. The down side to this method is that the resulting file is HUGE and can actually slow up the preferences of adblockplus.

Using edexter is faster and easier (no need to create the filters) and it also provides support for non-adblockplus users and browsers.