virtualbox.org

I added a hostname entry for a linux vm in windows hosts file

For example
192.168.103.23 vbox.local


From Windows, pinging vbox.local required 3-5 secs to response.
However, a instance response by pinging 192.168.103.23

The hosts file is the last in a chain to find and resolve names. Don't expect it to be instantaneous.

Um... actually the hosts file is the first one that is consulted. There are known lists of "hosts" files (which include adware/malware sites) which point to 0.0.0.0. That saves even the trip to the DNS server. But, definitely, pinging directly instead of using a name resolution is indeed faster. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_%28f ... plications