Questions on Immunize and HOSTS file

[Reggie Stry]

I've noticed both my Firefox and IE 6 browsers hanging when visiting several favorite sites, and I suspected the problem was the latest beta2 install of Spybot S&D.

Sure enough, when I checked my HOSTS file, it was bigger than the backup I made when I updated my usual HOSTS file from MVPS.org. It went from 640 kb to 820 kb in size. Even with my DNS service disabled, this large a HOSTS file can cause a drag on a CPU when the browsers have to interact with the registry domain that contain all these url lookups.

I've tried using Spybot S&D tools to remove the Spybot HOSTS file adds and the program locked. Now I'm just going to download the latest MVPS.org file again and load it, and try to change the settings area of Spybot so that the Spybot list isn't added.

I have several questions:

1) Shouldn't the MVPS.org HOSTS file be enough, considering that I:

a) Have Zone Alarm Pro set to high security, blocking embedded objects, etc.
b) mainly use Firefox and try only to visit Siteadvisor's green check sites.
c) have your Immunize feature along with Spyware Blaster loaded

2) Am I correct in stating that your Immunize feature is separate from your HOSTS adds in that the Immunize url's are added to just the restricted area of Internet Explorer?