I would like to see a change however in the Hosts file protection.

Would it be possible to change it from being the localhost IP address of 127.0.0.1 to the correct null address of 0.0.0.0?

The reason is that by sending a connection to 127.0.0.1, these website hits make the connection retry several times to your own computer before finally giving up.

That is bad and incorrect behavior. 127.0.0.1 is your computer (That's why it says 127.0.0.1 localhost in your Hosts file) and since your computer is active that means it will try to establish an active connection. It doesn't just try once, it tries several times before it times out.

0.0.0.0 is a null address. Going to 0.0.0.0 will allow it to try the connection once and see that it is dead, decreasing any network traffic on your machine/network.

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Using the Hosts file and altering the DNS Client service decreases both computer performance and network performance, but it also increases network latency. For best results, the Immunizations should do like SpywareBlaster does. This would ensure both maximum efficiency and protection.

This article features a lot of information about the Hosts file and much more.