How big can HOSTS be?

[none]

Ken, very informative post! I was wondering how to enter a URL to speed
access. In my current HOSTS the format to BLOCK is:

0 whateveraddress.com

I do not use the standard 0.0.0.0, found one zero works fine and helps
keeps file size down

What format is required to make access faster?

Thanks
Vic
___

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken, very informative post! I was wondering how to enter a URL to speed
access. In my current HOSTS the format to BLOCK is:

0 whateveraddress.com

I do not use the standard 0.0.0.0, found one zero works fine and helps
keeps file size down

What is standard is 127.0.0.1

If you say 0 works, OK, but I have no experience with that. Read here:
"Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File" at
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

What format is required to make access faster?

Exactly the same:

ipaddress URL

Also note that the hosts file can be hijacked to send a URL, not to
the right ip address, but to a malicious one. There is software
available to notify you of any attempt to change the Hosts file. For
example, WinPatrol does this

Thanks
Vic
___

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

That would be "acts" I presume. ;-)

Yes, that's what it should have been.