I'm using mikrotik as dns caching server for my local network (all DNS requests are redirected to mikrotik).
I added few static enties for my hosts such as host1.local, host2.local etc.

The problem is, when resolving such a domain name from a W7 PC (tried two different PCs) there's a delay of around 5s before the IP is resolved.
Even after the IP is resolved when trying to ping the same domain name the delay is present.
Other PCs (XP/linux) resolve the local domain names immediately.

I tried using 'host1.home, host2.home' naming scheme and now W7 also resolves immediately.

Obviously W7 interprets that .local part somehow and does additional steps.

Does anyone have an idea what could that be?

Thanks