+To explain the host/ip processing logic a different way for the same ACL:
+
+.ilist
+If you have name lookups or wildcarded host names and
+IP addresses in the same host list, you should normally put the IP
+addresses first. For example, in an ACL you could have:
+.code
+accept hosts = 10.9.8.7 : *.friend.example
+.endd
+The reason you normally would order it this way lies in the
+left-to-right way that Exim processes lists. It can test IP addresses
+without doing any DNS lookups, but when it reaches an item that requires
+a host name, it fails if it cannot find a host name to compare with the
+pattern. If the above list is given in the opposite order, the
+&%accept%& statement fails for a host whose name cannot be found, even
+if its IP address is 10.9.8.7.
+
+.next
+If you really do want to do the name check first, and still recognize the IP
+address, you can rewrite the ACL like this:
+.code
+accept hosts = *.friend.example
+accept hosts = 10.9.8.7
+.endd
+If the first &%accept%& fails, Exim goes on to try the second one. See chapter
+&<<CHAPACL>>& for details of ACLs. Alternatively, you can use
+&`+ignore_unknown`&, which was discussed in depth in the first example in
+this section.
+.endlist
+
+