diff --git a/fail2ban/helpers.py b/fail2ban/helpers.py
index 0d7d8ba9..220753a7 100644
--- a/fail2ban/helpers.py
+++ b/fail2ban/helpers.py
@@ -282,7 +282,18 @@ def excepthook(exctype, value, traceback):
 		"Unhandled exception in Fail2Ban:", exc_info=True)
 	return sys.__excepthook__(exctype, value, traceback)
 
-def splitwords(s):
+RE_REM_COMMENTS = re.compile(r'(?m)(?:^|\s)[\#;].*')
+def removeComments(s):
+	"""Helper to remove comments:
+		# comment ...
+		; comment ...
+		no comment # comment ...
+		no comment ; comment ...
+	"""
+	return RE_REM_COMMENTS.sub('', s)
+
+RE_SPLT_WORDS = re.compile(r'[\s,]+')
+def splitwords(s, ignoreComments=False):
 	"""Helper to split words on any comma, space, or a new line
 
 	Returns empty list if input is empty (or None) and filters
@@ -290,7 +301,9 @@ def splitwords(s):
 	"""
 	if not s:
 		return []
-	return list(filter(bool, [v.strip() for v in re.split(r'[\s,]+', s)]))
+	if ignoreComments:
+		s = removeComments(s)
+	return list(filter(bool, [v.strip() for v in RE_SPLT_WORDS.split(s)]))
 
 def _merge_dicts(x, y):
 	"""Helper to merge dicts.
diff --git a/fail2ban/server/ipdns.py b/fail2ban/server/ipdns.py
index cff8d60d..665bddc6 100644
--- a/fail2ban/server/ipdns.py
+++ b/fail2ban/server/ipdns.py
@@ -778,7 +778,7 @@ class FileIPAddrSet(IPAddrSet):
 					self._fileStats = stats
 			with open(self.fileName, 'r') as f:
 				ips = f.read()
-			ips = splitwords(ips)
+			ips = splitwords(ips, ignoreComments=True)
 			self.set(ips)
 		except Exception as e: # pragma: no cover
 			if not noError: raise e
diff --git a/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py b/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
index bfce434f..6de4ff09 100644
--- a/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
+++ b/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ from io import StringIO
 from .utils import LogCaptureTestCase, logSys as DefLogSys
 
 from ..helpers import formatExceptionInfo, mbasename, TraceBack, FormatterWithTraceBack, getLogger, \
-	getVerbosityFormat, splitwords, uni_decode, uni_string
+	getVerbosityFormat, removeComments, splitwords, uni_decode, uni_string
 from ..server.mytime import MyTime
 
 
@@ -68,6 +68,16 @@ class HelpersTest(unittest.TestCase):
 		self.assertEqual(splitwords(' 1\n  2, 3'), ['1', '2', '3'])
 		self.assertEqual(splitwords('\t1\t  2,\r\n 3\n'), ['1', '2', '3']); # other spaces
 
+	def testSplitNoComments(self):
+		s = '''
+			# comment ...
+			; comment ...
+			line1 A # comment ...
+			line2 B ; comment ...
+		'''
+		self.assertEqual(splitwords(s, ignoreComments=True), ['line1', 'A', 'line2', 'B'])
+		self.assertEqual(splitwords(removeComments(s)), ['line1', 'A', 'line2', 'B'])
+
 
 def _sh_call(cmd):
 	import subprocess