I’ve read that a good hosts file can be used to block unwanted ads/sites/parasites. I look into mine via Windows Explorer then C:>Windows>system32>drivers>etc and when I open HOSTS I see that I have my Hosts File courtesy of Spybot. Ive read also about MVPS HOSTS file, Dan Pollock’s Hosts file, Andrew Short’s Hosts file, etc etc. I mean there are lots out there but which is the best? Can I have 2 or more hosts file in my pc? Is there a Bill Gates’ Hosts file? I’m just curious about it and wanted to learn and harness the power of using hosts file for security reason. Thanks!
You can simply merge two or as many as you want hosts file into the one. However I don’t like it, I remember that big hosts file caused me a lot of troubles - freezing computer with services.exe running on 100% for thirty minutes, 5 minutes of work and again services.exe consuming all CPU…
I think that good personal firewall with good rules is better than hosts file.
Yeah, I’ve read about that problem here>>>http://hostsfile.mine.nu/#WA2K and the workaround seems to be easy to follow. Thanks for the reply, I’ll keep that in mind!
Also keep in mind that “best” for just about any product is frequently a matter of personal preferences. While we’re naturally keen on avast here, look at all the arguments you’ll see everywhere about “best” anti-virus, “best” firewall, “best” media player, etc.
:-[ :-[ :-[Yes I see your point…been reading the thread about the “best firewall” here and now I’m embarassed. I guess I’ll just stick to what I have right now. 
But this disables local dns cache, every name lookup is then done over the network => internet connection performance is degraded.
The instruction on the given site seems to be informative enough. Also, there is an opinion like below.
http://grandcountyinternet.com/DNSResolverCache/
o Turn off the "DNS Client" service entirely (This is What we are recommending!Rather than counting on everything working as it should, I usually suggest people turn off the dns caching and be done with it. MS's lame arguments that the dns lookup time will increase is simply splitting hairs - the dns mechanism already contains provision (in dns servers) for properly caching dns information. Also new viruses and Software now can completely take over this DNS Caching and make your computer a security risk! - Eden)
In any case, even if something wrong happens, you can simply turn on the DNS Client service. So, why not give it a try? I disabled the DNS client service when I began to use OpenDNS while back but I haven’t realized any noticeable difference since then. Generally speaking, outside of security routers, home computer security tends to require resources of each computer and it is nice of specialized servers to take some loads.