How many entries in hosts file is too many ?

I have 139436 entries in my hosts file on WinXP SP3 Pro. These are for blocking ads & malware/spyware sites & the file is updated both by Spybot & Hostsman almost on a weekly basis.

Is there an upper limit to the number of entries in the file ?
Does it impact speed of internet access or the computer ?

[DNS client is disabled otherwise the internet access becomes s-l-o-w].

 

Mine just weighs in at 4.2 GB !

 

May I ask why disabling DNS client is advised. My host file is 704Kb and I have not disabled DNS client in either of my computers.

 

MVP hosts file and Spybot S&D

Hi PeteC, I have changed to the MVP hosts file as per your post above. Can I still use the Immunize feature of Spybot S&D or will it overwrite the MVP hosts file? If it is not desirable to use Immunize, how can it be turned off or do I just not use it?

 

Thanks

Thanks for the quick reply, I will continue using S&D.

 

Pete,

I double checked it. Its indeed 4.23 MB (4,436,804 bytes).

I update from 3-4 additional sources in addition to hostsman sources.

Edit: Oops. 4.2 GB instead of 4.2 MB ! Now I know why you pointed it out. I should be 4.2 MB.