Apparently I was the first person ever to attempt using dnsmasq to block ads (Fri, Oct 27, 2006). In 2006 I reported a bug named &quot;reading &#x2F;etc&#x2F;hosts takes 6 minutes&quot; :-)<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.thekelleys.org.uk&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;dnsmasq-discuss&#x2F;2006q4&#x2F;000937.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.thekelleys.org.uk&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;dnsmasq-discuss&#x2F;200...</a><p>Before every new dns entry was naively compared sequentially with current dataset, the fix was probably a hashtable.