Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: _Rej_ on July 12, 2007, 01:34:46 AM
-
Hi folks,
First let me thank you for allowing us poor (financially) fellows to be able to have a quality Virus Scanner (I'm using Avast Home Edition)... Since I'm on disability and my revenues are very low, this is MUCH appreciated!. (and all of my friends are now on Avast as well :)
Ok to the bug.. I have both XP PRO SP2 (32-bit) and Vista 32-bit (Ultimate) installed on my PC. On XP, I have all the providers activated and everything is great .. WebShield does NOT slow down my connections at all, *but*...
On Vista 32-bit (ultimate), when the WebShield is active, *everytime* I connect to a webpage (on a new session), I have a 3 seconds delay.
For example, to test this, I go to http://www.google.ca/ and notice the 'connecting to google.ca...' status for about 3 seconds..
then I go to http://performance.toast.net/ to test the speed of the connection... in order to do this, select a 'Web Host, then F-16 Jets and click on Run Test...
the first test will take 4.8 seconds on my PC (with both Firefox2 or IE7)... then If I go back once, then redo the test *without exiting the web browser*, the new test will take 1.8 seconds (which is what it's always doing on WinXP with or without WebShield active).
Since in Vista I realized it might be the WebShield, I tried to deactive one function at a time to see if any of them were causing the problem .. and no.. not even PAUSING webshield will fix this..
IN ORDER to get rid of the 3 seconds delay on every navigation links I try, I need to TERMINATE webshield... THEN I get my normal ultra fast internet without any delays 8)... when I try the above test with webshield OFF, it's *always* 1.8 seconds, never 4.8.
Since I want to keep using Avast webshield I thought I'd report this to you directly in the hope that it will help improve an already amazing product :).
Thanks again and continued success...
regards...
Rejean Gravel
Montreal, QC
-
WebShield shouldn't be causing such a long delay... but, of course, protection takes resources...
Hope Lukas (our WebShield guru) post anything about...
There are other threads about Vista delays & WebShield.
Anyway, welcome to avast forums. Greetings from Brazil to the wonderful Canada 8)
-
thanks for the reply *and* the welcome :D
Rej
-
Hello. I am back trying Avast again now that I have a new Vista Home Basic 32 System. I am also finding I take a terrible hit on internet webpage loading when the WebShield is activated. When I turn WebShield off my surfing is very fast and smooth. Turn it back on and the draggy delays begin again. I have tried this multiple times. WebShield is definitely the cause of the problem. I really want to continue using Avast, but I can't stand the hit in page loading it is causing. Please help if you can. Thank you.
PS.... I get 2692 Kbps with WebShield On versus 4205 Kbps with WebShield Off on DSL Reports Speed Test(NJ Server). Test 2 (NJ). 2718 versus 4583 Test 3(Miami Server). 3986 versus 4902 Test 4(Miami). 3957 versus 4896. All slower speeds are with WebShield ON. So the WebSheild is causing a significant hit in performance.
Vista Home Basic, Intel 945GCCR MB, Celeron D 3.46ghz, 1gb (2x512mb) DDR2 533 RAM, BFG 7950GT 256mb Graphics Card, Seagate 120gb SATA2 HDD, RoadRunner 5000 Kbps Internet, Avast Home 4.7, ZoneAlarm Home 7.1.078.000, CA Anti-Spyware and Anti-Spam.
-
WebShield is definitely the cause of the problem.
Or any other program that is interfering with WebShield... like ZoneAlarm from time to time...
Activate logging in WebShield:
1. Edit <avast>\data\avast4.ini file
2. Find the section [WebScanner]
3. Add the line:
EnableLogging=1
4. Restart Web Shield in XP (terminate and start again) or whole PC in case of Win98
5. Browse (trying to access some webpages)
The log file are <avast>\data\log\ashwebsv.log and ashwebsv.ws.
They would be accessible when WebShield is terminated again.
Post them here or send by mail to rypacek (at) asw.cz
After that, disable the logging to avoid a big log file.
-
Hello again Tech! : ) Perhaps it would have been more accurate of me to say "I only experience the laggy page loading and internet slowdowns when the WebShield is activated". Perhaps something else is interfering with Avast. At any rate,when I turn off WebShield the problem clears up. I will email you the requested info. Thank you........
-
I will email you the requested info.
It's not my email but an Alwil team member (Lukas).
-
Please try the following:
open the file <avast>\data\avast4.ini, and add the following line to the [WebScanner] section:
ModifyVistaSocketAutoTuning=0
Save the changes, restart the computer and see if it makes any difference.
Thanks
Vlk
-
Thank you very much for your kind and speedy attempts to help :). Unfortunately the change to the .ini file did not help at all. If anything, it is more laggy now than before. And it speeds up considerably when I turn off the WebShield. Since I run ZoneAlarm would I need to change anything from the initial install settings for Avast?
-
Smoke,
can you please try the following:
1) run CMD prompt (as an adminstrator)
2) type:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
3) terminate and re-start WebShield
Do you see any difference?
Lukas.
Edit by Vlk - fixed a typo in the netsh command parameters.
-
Lukor, I tried it, and there is no improvement. :'( The worst pages seem to be ones with lots of adds on them like Zap2it Tv Listings, but I am still taking about a 1000-1200 Kbps loss in internet speed when I test on DSL Reports while the WebShield is active. Again, thank you guys for your attempts to help and especially so quickly. It is inspirational. :)
-
Should I reset the global autotuning parameter? and if so, to what? I tried typing the same string and changing "disabled" to "enabled" and "enable", but the command prompt didn't accept either command.
Never mind. I figured it out.
-
Should I reset the global autotuning parameter? and if so, to what? I tried typing the same string and changing "disabled" to "enabled" and "enable", but the command prompt didn't accept either command.
Never mind. I figured it out.
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
Thanks anyway for the testing. Currently I don't know what might be causing your problems, still searching for more ideas. :-\
-
Lukor, I tried it, and there is no improvement. :'( The worst pages seem to be ones with lots of adds on them like Zap2it Tv Listings, but I am still taking about a 1000-1200 Kbps loss in internet speed when I test on DSL Reports while the WebShield is active. Again, thank you guys for your attempts to help and especially so quickly. It is inspirational. :)
I seems to me that the problem is during the connecion handshake. Pages with lots of adds have links to lots of different servers and hence more connections need to be created -- hence the slowdown. Concerning the slowdown, well I have already seen many speed tests, some of them pretty dumb, some of them testing the speed by moving the payload into the HTTP headers (very strange), some use many connections at once. Don't know what is the logic behind this one? Can you post the exact link for the test page?
-
Thanks Lukor. I had already found the reset for the global autotuninglevel by Google. Should I reset the previous change Vlk had me make to the Avast WebShield INI (ModifyVistaSocketAutoTuning=0), and if so, what setting should I specify? 1 ? Or delete that line from the INI altogether?
The SpeedTest site is DSL Reports. I have used it for years. It is Java based, and it usually seems to be a good indicator of my actual speed. For instance, when I "feel" the connection is slow and go check with DSL Reports it usually verifies that my speed is off. When the Net "feels" fast and I check, it almost always verifies that my speeds are good. At any rate here is the link.
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?java=1
I think you are right about the number of connections on heavily advertised sites being a part of the problem. I turned on the "Show detailed info on performed action" setting in the Advanced Options for WebShield, and when I visited the Zap2it website, the WebShield was going crazy with many multiple connection attempts from the Adservers.
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do This website provides an extreme example of the slowdown problem. But this site still loads many times faster with the WebShield turned off. On other sites the problem is similar, but not as severe.
Finally, and as always, please understand I am grateful to your company for providing this fine product and service to so many people. If there was a "clapping hands" icon available I would be using it here. :)
-
Hey all,
Sorry for the (long) delay,
I'll try the log and changes mentionned and report + email the infos back.
Rej
-
Ok,
done all the testing, logs and haven't seen any significant changes to my browsing.. still getting the approx 3 secs delays on each simple pages I try and I have the same results as I used to when I wrote the original messsage.
I'm now using version 1029 btw.
Lukor's
I seems to me that the problem is during the connecion handshake.
I agree, since my downloads (once started and using Webshield in Vista) go as fast as they usually do under XP or if I don't use WebShield.
There also seem to be something about returning to a page within the same session. Let's say I link to Gamespot from Google, if I <Back> to google.com, I won't get the delay. Not knowing how IE or FF works, I can't comment on if it's already in memory etc but I thought I'd mention it in case it may help.
BTW, are we the only ones experiencing this issue? or is this an issue for all users of Vista + Avast Home Ed.?
I checked the log and couldn't see anything relating to timers so I'm not sure if the Email sent will be of help. :/
Anyways, everyone's help is much appreciated and if any of you need more testing, I'll be more than happy to contribute.
Thanks again and good luck.
_Rej_
Btw, how do I add my Computer info into the footer of each messages? Check teh profile settings and couldn't find it.
-
nevermind about the footer :) figured it would be the signature and I just saw that it was ;)
_Rej_
-
Hello _Rej_,
I am still unable to reproduce it here or find any possible cause. Can you please make one more test.
Edit avast4.ini file, in the section [WebScanner] find the line LoadIsapiFilters=1 and change the value to 0.
[WebScanner]
LoadIsapiFilters=0
A terminate/re-start WebShield.
Does anything change?
(if not, please re-enable the filter, it does the virus scanning and is rather important :P )
-
Hi lukor,
first, thanks for replying and for your continued interest in trying to resolve this. Much appreciated :)
Tried the LoadIsapiFilters=0 without success.
I figured I'd even try the autoredirect=0 flag to see and didn't notice much (if any) difference either.
Wish I had better news :-\
I wonder, is there is a flag that would allow us to LOG webscanner with a time stamp for each lines? This would give you a better idea of the delays I'm referring to.
Also, I'd like to mention this again, the delays *do seem* to be almost exactly 3 seconds (3000 ms)... Is there something in the web communication protocols that has a timeout of 3000ms out there? This might help.
Again, the above is an approximation but since I moved and changed my service to 10mb (from 7mb), my results are now 4.4 seconds then down to 1.4 seconds when I retry it right away (or when I'm using either WindowsXP with WebShield or Vista without WebShield). This is consistant.. if I exit the web browser (IE7 or FF.. tried both) I always get first 4.4 seconds then 1.4 seconds on the test page I mentionned in my first post while on Vista with Webshield.
I realise this isn't a perfect test, but if you know of a webpage that would help you even further, please feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to test those pages as well :)
Until then, good luck and don't forget to shoot me any tests you'd like me to try. (and a flag for time stamps for the logs if one exists) ;)
Regards...
_Rej_
-
Ok, _Rej_, thanks, I'll prepare a special instrumented version of WebShield that will enable us to create somewhat more detailed logs. I'll post the download link and instructions as soon as it is ready.
Cheers,
Lukas.
-
Welcome.
-
Great! :D
You're welcome of course :) Helps me as much as it does you/Alwil + other users.
I'll check back more often to make sure I don't delay you too much. (got plenty of time on my hands so I'll be available for as many tests as needs to be done).
and thanks for the welcome joaopr :)
Cheers too,
_Rej_
-
In the meantime, I've decided to try to leave webshield on (on Vista) and encountered another problem -- a problem that might be related to the delays though.
whenever I try to open this page
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20042244/
...4 out of 5 times, after what seems like the full page has loaded, I get an Internet Explorer error that says...
'Internet Explorer could not open this page... (see attached *.jpg)
then, after pressing OK, I get the 'page cannot be displayed' page.
Not sure if this helps, but I don't want to pass up anything in case it might prove useful.
_Rej_
P.S. I don't get this error with FF but then again, I use NoScript and AdBlock, so in effect, lessening the stuff to be loaded.. and I assume the handshaking related to those.
-
I've discovered another issue with WebShield... on Windows XP this time (SP2) --- will need to test Vista to see if the same thing occurs.. I'll report on this later on.
This issue has been happening to me for a good 2 weeks now (I think it's before the 1029 version altho I'm not sure).
To test I have been doing is to download this file from the microsoft servers 10 times without WebShield...
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b406cf67-d926-463b-99e8-27199d6626b5&DisplayLang=en
(good thing I have no limits on downloads with my current ISP package :)
and once I activate WebShield, 9 out of 10 times, the download will *stop* ... just stop with the included download screen just staying there, its icon still animating, but nothing else changing.. that means the 'Estimated time left' stays the same, the 'transfer rate' stays the same etc.. I've left the last one open for 5 minutes and no changes.. it just stays there.
Note that this happens *only* when I have webshield activated OR on pause.. if WebShield is terminated, the downloads never 'freeze'.
btw, since I thought that this was a problem with my ISP (had called them a few times about it without them seeing any issues with my signals), and that when a download freezes, I can cancel and restart it and since it restarts where it left off, it was something I could live with.
But realizing that it's (well, I think it is based on my tests) a Webshield issue since it doesn't happen with it off (terminated), well, thought you should know aobut it :D
Also, the downloads never stop at the same spot (advantage of testing same file over and over).
Now, I'm not sure you wanted this new issue on a new thread or on this thread, so let me know and I'll report it on a new thread if required.
Sorry to be the bringer of 'bad' news but hey, the more bugs fixed, the better it becomes ;D
Regards..
_Rej_
P.S. Forgot to mention that I tried to log, but when I activate the log, it reports nothing while downloading the file so I thought you wouldn't need one, but if you do, let me know and I'll redo the test with log on and send you the results.
P.P.S. Also, this happens wether I use IE7 or Firefox.
_Rej_ gone to test on Vista
I've done the tests on Vista and the downloads never freeze, but they always stop at around 18MB (out of 53MB) for a few seconds while I see the 'a' icon turning, then it always resumes without problems. -- if WebShield isn't active, then the stoppage at 18mb does not occur. I consider this normal.
-
Hi Lukor,
First the apology :-[ -- I mentionned earlier (in a previous post) that adding a time stamp might help... well I must have been asleep the last time I checked, because I realized you *already* had time stamps in the logs.. so sorry about that ;)
Since I realized that there *were* time stamps, I redid the logs which I will include here so you can see the delays I'm referring to in these posts... I include both the WinXP and Vista logs.
In both instances, I did the exact same tests. I started with Google.ca, then went to my performance test page, did the test twice, then returned to google.ca. Last part of the test is opening the main MSNBC.com page (takes a log longer on Vista)
One thing to note is that on my second performance test on Windows XP, the image loading frooze, so I kept it in the log in case you might see something I missed (it's the same problem as the downloads I mentionned in the previous post -- at least this time I was able to log it).
So here are the logs.. hope they can help.
I'm going to wait for your exec for the next tests...
So until then...
Regards..
_Rej_
P.S. since I thought you needed both the .log and .ws files I zipped them, but got stopped since the forum doesn't allow .zip files.. I just added .log to the names but they are still zipped
-
Hi,
can please check this file:
http://public.avast.com/~rypacek/ashWebSv.zip
It is a zipped webshield service executable (ashWebSv.exe). Unpack it to the avast folder (C:\program files\alwil software\avast4) -WebShield must be terminated during the replacement.
It should create more detailed log in C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Log\ashwebsv.dbg. Please send me the file and hopefully something will come out. (the file is accessible again only when WebShield is terminated).
Avast will automatically replace this patched service with the original one during reboot - so please be aware that the patched version will disappear automatically :P
-
Hi,
Ok, Downloaded, Scanned ( ;) ) and noted (about patch replacing it, how to install etc).
I'll send you the logs with the same activities I did with the last ones (see previous post).
_Rej_
-
hello,
I register me, because I read this tread and I have the same problem. My Internet is very slow. I also try another virus protection program. But it make no difference. When I quit Avast, the Internet has full speed. Under XP I have never ever any problems. I hope it can fixed. I don´t like to surf without any protection.
-
Hi,
Here we go... logs included. Not zipped this time.. just the .log files.
Same activities as previously (hope you read my previous 2-3 messages but in case you didn't...)
- Open with Google.ca
- goto http://performance.toast.net/
- run test twice, first time = 4.4 seconds, second time = 1.4 seconds (every and I mean *every* time)
- go back to google.ca
- open main page of MSNBC.com which was http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3053415/ at the time.
- Terminate WebShield to get logs.
Did this on both WinXP and Vista to demonstrate the delays experienced in Vista.
Hope this helps.. if not, let me know if you need other tests/pages etc.
Thx for the test exe btw.
Regards...
_Rej_
P.S. after checking the logs time stamps, the biggest difference I could notice that doesn't require user input start with the first MSNBC.com link -- that's when I click to get to the main page, and once it's loaded, I terminate webshield to get the log.. on Xp it's 12 seconds to load the entire page (with adds etc) while it takes 43 seconds on vista.
Note that my download speeds (when they don't freeze on Xp) are the same on both Vista and Xp (~ 1 MBytes/s)
-
Hello _Rej_,
Thanks for the testing and for the logs. Unfortunately I am still trying to dig some gold out of them, without much luck though.
As you can see yourself, the timeline in the log goes pretty smoothly - no 3 seconds delays anywhere. We have only the per-second precision, this can be increased if needed, but currently I can say it seems to me there is no problem captured in the log.
The only gap I've found is between the connections. You can look it up by yourself. Search for the first occurrence of: 2007-7-31 16:29:48
You can see:
2007-7-31 16:29:48,Created
2007-7-31 16:29:48,connection 015D9368 of 5 (to clnt: 5) from 127.0.0.1:12080 to 127.0.0.1:49172
2007-7-31 16:29:48,Server: connection accepted.
This is the point where new connection is accepted by WebShield -that means WebShield was idle and waited in the accept( ) winsock call.
As you can see, the last line before this one is:
2007-7-31 16:29:45,Thread Main 11 is waiting, total 11, 10 threads waiting.
This means, all 10 threads are idle and have nothing to do (the 11th thread is reserved for other tasks, such as VPS updates etc.).
Even one line before, you can see that the same second the last non-idle thread finished it's duties and became idle as well:
2007-7-31 16:29:45,Thread Main 4 is waiting, total 11, 9 threads waiting.
The 3 seconds gap is here, between the lines:
2007-7-31 16:29:45,Thread Main 11 is waiting, total 11, 10 threads waiting.
and
2007-7-31 16:29:48,Created
During the time WebShield is completely idle, doing nothing, just waiting for some connection to arrive.
Strange indeed.
1) Do you use any 3rd party firewall on Vista?
2) Have you tried to disable port redirection in WebShield - e.g. deleting the number "80" the the "Http redirected ports" line in WebShield config? Does this helps (yes I now, no your browser does not goes through WebShield, even though it is still running).
3) What happens when you enable HTTP proxy in the browser (still with Redirect disabled in WebShield) and configure it to be localhost, port 12080. Is the 3 seconds lag still there?
Thanks for now, hopefully we will find something.
Cheers,
Lukas.
-
Hi Luktor,
Sure thing, and ready to do more testing should you require it.. I actually intend to do more to provide you with an easier way to find the delay. I'll check into this today (2:00pm here so it must be late where you are... givine me plenty of time to work on this).
I'll verify the steps you mentionned and let you know what I think.
As for the firewalls I use, I was using Zonealarm home edition until today ... I woke up to find out it had crashed during the night (I do P2P) so I switched to a much more robust Comodo Firewall Pro on XP and will do the same on Vista.
If I notice any differences I'll let you know.
I will also try the redirection of port 80, proxy and test those and report back to you asap :)
Thanks for your continued interest in this.. hope we'll find a solution to this eventually :) (gotta.. since there is something going on.. just well hidden from what I can see on machine that do NOT exhibit the symptoms.
In any case, I'll be available as long as you require me to be in order to fix this and the download issue with WinXP (mentionned in a previous post in this thread).
Regards...
_Rej_
P.S. I noticed that the time stamps aren't part of the *.dbg files I sent you.. so I'm assuming they didn't reveal anything either :-\
-
Hi Luktor,
I'm trying to find any logs from my Vista config that would contain the date/hours mentionned in your log and could *not* find any.. I don't remember touching vista after around 3:00PM ET canada time so I don't know where I could have collected data that would show 17:xx time on the 31st .
Were you using one of my logs? if so, can you send it to me (I might have deleted it by mistake without realizing I'd need it again to check).
Both of my *dbg logs were for the 31st but they were done at around 12:30ish PM (not 17:30ish)
What I'll do in the meantime is recheck the previous log I current have and see if I can't find something relevant.
Cheers..
_Rej_
-
I am referring to the file AshWebSv.dbg (size: 3335090, modified 31/07/2007, 12:34:38), from your zip file AshWebSv-Vista.zip (size: 186623), line: 2432.
Lukas
-
Hello again,
so i think i have a solution. I don´t use a firewall. I have Zone Labs. I reinstall it. And than speed came out ;). I make some more test!
-
wow thanks for the quick reply... I'll check it out and report back.
btw, found the lines. was checking for 16:48, not 16:29:48 ... my bad ::)
be back with some useful infos hopefully.
_Rej_
-
HI Luktor,
While I'm about to switch to Vista to replace ZoneAlarm to Comodo Pro (which will constitute another test at the same time), I'd like to refer you to this..
find those line in the log...
2007-7-31 16:34:1,Thread Main 10 is waiting, total 11, 10 threads waiting.
2007-7-31 16:34:4,Created
Notice the 3 seconds delay that seems to NOT come from Webshield btw. What's interesting about this is that I didn't do anything while this was happening (this part is when I'm loading the MSNBC.com page, so I'm just waiting for the page to complete loading.
So something is causing that 3 seconds delay. Something that (checking on the WinXP log) doesn't happen under WinXP.
This is the WinXP part of the same log activity...
2007-7-31 16:17:33,Thread Main 5 is waiting, total 11, 10 threads waiting.
2007-7-31 16:17:33,Created
Slightly different but as you can see, 0 delay between the 2.. so something is causing this delay.. just not sure what it is..
I'm now switching to Vista to do an intense set of tests (including the ones you mentionned) and I'll report back to you.
Cheers...
_Rej_
-
Hi Luktor,
<-- bonk bonk bonk (sound of my head hitting my desk)
Problem found by Connecter .. congrats Connecter!
I removed Zonealarm completly (uninstalled it) and the speed issue is gone!!!
I had tested it before my disabling it only and the speed issue hadn't changed so I assumed that it wan't ZoneAlarm but now that I've uninstalled it and restarted my PC, speeds are the same as in WinXP so it looks like ZoneAlarm has some sort of bug with Vista that it doesn't have with XP.
I'm sooooo sorry to have had you spend time on this when it wasn't a WebShield issue at all. Truly Sorry about that Luktor. :(
I still wish to thank you and all your team for making us feel like our opinion matter and taking our suggestions seriously. This in my eye, makes a company and even though I was an Avast fan before, I'm even more so now with the kind of service I'm seeing -- even for those that can't afford the pro edition and use the Home/Free edition!
Congrats to you and all your team and I sincerely wish you (team/Alwil) a long and succesful life!
Regards,
_Rej_
P.S. I'll go back to XP and check if the downloads are fixed now that I removed ZoneAlarm... I'll let you know.
P.P.S. bah, Comodo Pro isn't Vista ready yet (it's really a great Firewall -- first in many reviews as being the best, even better than the commercial ones out there.. anyone can point me toward a good firewall other than ZoneAlarm? Thx in advance).
-
Hi Luktor,
Result of tests after reinstalling ZoneAlarm on Vista.
Unlike Connecter, my speed reverted back to the same as before (delays of 3 seconds on each handshake).
So I tried the tests you mentionned earlier.
1) Remove the redirect of port 80
--- This removed all the delays... it's as if I had terminated WebShield. All speeds normal.
2) I then tried to set the proxy to 127.0.0.1, port 12080
--- This is a bit weirder.. the Internet became sluggish, (even with no redirect of port 80). My speed tests were normal, but it takes me a very long time to connect to any pages. Seems similar but it's not the same issue (if an issue at all).
btw, both tests above were done with ZoneAlarm reinstalled.
-- I will remove zonealarm and try to find a better Firewall until Comodo becomes Vista ready.
Good news seems to be that WebShield isn't to blame here although there does seems to be a conflict that doesn't exist in WinXP -- I'll post that info on ZoneLabs forums but from my experience, it won't get checked at for a good while. Their service isn't anything like Alwil service.. yours is way better :)
-- Download tests on WinXP coming up soon to a computer screen near you...
Regards...
_Rej_
-
Jear! Great! Good that it work by your pc too. :)
Freeware firewalls which you can use with vista aren´t very often to find. When you found something good please wride down.
-
Hi Connecter,
Sure will :) For now I use the Vista Firewall since I'm very careful when i'm on vista (no p2p, just normal browsing to known sites).
But I'll search for one and once I do find a good one, I'll let you know.
Cheers,
_Rej_
-
hi Luktor,
Good news,
On Windows XP, the download freeze issue was fixed by replacing ZoneAlarm with Comodo Firewall Pro and I thought you'd like to hear the good news :)
Man, thinking on the last few days, I realize that if I had just removed ZA firsthand, we would have saved a lot of time for all of us. Something to remember for the next time I encounter similar issues.
Regards...
Rej
P.S. if you're ever interested to perform additional tests, please feel free to let me know. As I said previously I have plenty of time on my hands and I'd be happy help in any way.
-
_Rej_, Connecter,
thank you guys for your testing efforts. We have already had a suspicion that Zone Alarm might be involved - in fact we are already testing this possibility and work around in the Q/A lab, but it's always somewhat complicated to blame 3rd party product as a first step solution.
I am happy we have finally find the cause. Hopefully we will also find some work around, so that Zone Alarm users might continue using WebShield on Vista as well.
Regards,
Lukas.
-
Oh well, here it goes again... :-[
A similar thing has happened about 3 years ago, we touched base with ZA developers but they were not very fond of the idea of fixing anything (to put it diplomatically). We even met them face to face at a conference - still no luck... (it almost gave us the impression that these guys don't really give a s..t about the quality of their product) [I apologize for the language]
We can only hope that now, they'll take the issue more seriously as avast's install base has grown considerably.
Cheers
Vlk
-
My personal impression is that ZoneLab used to be a serious company. Not any more since last three or four years. When other free firewalls take their market (from Sygate to Kerio, from Comodo to PC Tools)... Since three years ZA has been vanished from my computers.
-
Hi Lukor, Vlk,
thank you guys for your testing efforts.
It was a pleasure :) Glad I could help even if it's just a little.
We have already had a suspicion that Zone Alarm might be involved - in fact we are already testing this possibility and work around in the Q/A lab, but it's always somewhat complicated to blame 3rd party product as a first step solution.
Aye, I can understand that. I just hope you guys are able to find a way 'around' it although I'd prefer if ZA would return to being what they used to be -- As Tech mentionned in the post above, I agree that they 'used to' be a great company. Somehow, my feeling is they became more 'corporate' in the last few years and let go of their search for 'quality' and 'effort' to provide their users with the best product and service they could. And let's not forget their buggy uninstaller. Everytime I used to uninstall ZA, I couldn't reinstall it without having to manually delete the ZoneLabs Directory under System32. I still don't know if they fixed it on WinXP (I now delete it automatically everytime I uninstall ZA).
Heck, until recently, I still had to download their new version to update my ZA to the latest version.. talk about a prehistoric way of updating a product!! :P
All I can add to this about ZA is that your WebShield works perfectly so far on Windows XP with Comodo.. no issues so far. Let's not forget that I had the download freezes issue with ZA under WindowsXP. This isn't an issue anymore. 8)
I am happy we have finally find the cause. Hopefully we will also find some work around, so that Zone Alarm users might continue using WebShield on Vista as well.
Aye, me too :) and I wish you good luck there... if you need someone to test this, let me know, I don't mind reinstalling ZA to help test this.
similar thing has happened about 3 years ago, we touched base with ZA developers but they were not very fond of the idea of fixing anything (to put it diplomatically). We even met them face to face at a conference - still no luck... (it almost gave us the impression that these guys don't really give a s..t about the quality of their product) [I apologize for the language]
No need to apologize.. I hear ya and frankly, you're not the only one as can be seen by the few who posted here in the last day. You made the effort the last time. I just hope they'll listen now as, as you mentionned, AVast user base is considerable indeed! I hope it keeps growing too :) (Avast, not ZA). I also hope ZA will cooperate with you guys. Good luck btw.
Continued success guys and keep up the great work (the product, AND the support!) ;D
Regards,
_Rej_
-
_Rej_, it's just a matter of waiting a little... soon Comodo firewall will be available for Vista...
-
Tech,
Aye, I'm on the email list for when it comes out :)
In the meantime, it gives me a chance to discover what's out there too.
_Rej_
-
Hello again. It has been a while since I posted about this problem. I uninstallled ZoneAlarm Free Home for Vista and the page loading problems did clear up. Problem is, I really like using ZA. Is there an .exe file in the Avast program that I should give "Server Rights" under ZA to make the Webshield work better? I already gave the Webscanner "Server Rights" but it didn't help any. I would really like to find a way to use both Avast with the Webshield active AND ZA too. Any ideas? Thanks if you can help.
-
Hi,
the problem is the current version of Zone Alarm.
We have exchanged a few emails with the developers from ZoneLabs/Checkpoint and indeed they admitted there is a problem in the firewall. On Vista, Zone Alarm causes a slowdown of several seconds on every incoming connection. This happens regardless of the fact if avast! is installed on the machine or not. Only that with avast! installed you see the problem more quickly, since WebShield accepts a lot of connections from your browser.
Other applications, like any ad-blocker, parental control, anonymizer, regular HTTP caching proxy, and even IIS or Apache Web Server running on Vista with Zone Alarm (simply everthing that accepts connections) is really a bad bad idea. At least in the current ZA version.
However today we were informed that ZoneLabs team had finally found out a fix for the problem. It should be out in the next Zone Alarm version (but we don't know when this is going to be released).
If you really like Zone Alarm, we suggest either turn the WebShield off, temporarily, until the fixed ZA version will be out, or at least configure your browser to use the proxy on localhost:12080 manually (don't use the auto-redirect). By this, you will be still hit by the slowdown, but since the browser is trying to keep the connection active as long as possible (when configure to use proxy manually) the slowdown may be slightly less obvious.
Cheers,
Lukas.
-
Hi Lukor,
Appreciate the information. I was wondering how things were developing about it since I've tried Comodo and although it's a great Firewall, I don't have the trust yet to switch to it and came back to ZA (like its simplicity and familiarity -- same goes with AVast now :)
So, again, thank you for keeping in touch with us about it and trying to solve the issue with Zonelabs (I'm glad they agreed to even try to fix it with you guys).
Great work! and continued success :D
Regards...
_Rej_
P.S. Hope they fix the download freezes that happens in XP with ZA at the same time, I guess we'll see it soon enough when the new version comes out.
-
Thank you again Lukor. I uninstalled ZA Free and also Avast for now. I was having problems with my gaming main server not loading all available servers into my "active list" of servers. I uninstalled ZA and restarted but the problem persisted. I uninstalled Avast as well and the problem cleared up immediately. As a client of RR I am able to use the CA Internet Suite for free, though I did not like their switch to the Tiny Personal Firewall from ZA. I don't care for some of the configurations therein. But, it works seemlessly now and since I am also behind a hardware router/firewall I suppose it will be secure enough. However, Bootup times are horribly slow with the CA Suite installed.
I thank you all again for Avast and for all you do to make it a better program day by day. I hope I will be able to install Avast again at a later date along with ZA and use them successfully as I have before. Thanks to all. :) :) :) Sincerely,
Smoke.
-
I've tried Comodo and although it's a great Firewall, I don't have the trust yet to switch to it and came back to ZA (like its simplicity and familiarity
I'd rather Comodo than ZA.
-
I've tried Comodo and although it's a great Firewall, I don't have the trust yet to switch to it and came back to ZA (like its simplicity and familiarity
I'd rather Comodo than ZA.
Yea, I'll wait for version 3.0 to arrive. As said above, I like it and I think it much better BUT there were instances where I did *not* know if an attack was blocked and cound *not* find out if it was or not (no logs, no nothing) -- had to use Wireshark to find out about the port issue btw... that's why I switched back to ZA in the meantime.
For example... for Azureus I need to have a network rule setup to allow the port that Azureus will use. Since using Comodo, I've noticed a LOT of traffic to this port even if I wasn't using p2p for days. So I changed the port to another one, and the traffic started switching to that port! If it's protected and stealthed, how come the traffic unvariably switch to it? And since I couldn't know if anything was blocked (I think it was, but couldn't confirm it) that's when I decided to return to ZA (for now).
perhaps 3.0 will help in this matter and others.
Something else I should mention, ALL my problems with XP download freezes went away with Comodo.
_Rej_
P.S. and Since 3.0 will support Vista, that's another point in its favor.
-
This is essentially a double post. I did this because I have had such a struggle finding a suitable Vista OS/Firewall/Avast combination. I have found one that is working beautifully for me and wanted to share it here too in case someone else has faced similar problems. I hope the Mods will understand and not be upset with me.
I have had a struggle finding a suitable Avast/Firewall combo for my Vista Basic Home computer, but I think after a bit of testing I have something that is working well. As I am a RR customer I have access to their free CA Internet Security Suite which includes a Free Version of a Firewall (based on Tiny Personal Firewall technology). After a lot of install/uninstall drama I have found that Avast Free Home integrates well with the RR/CA Security suite. I install everything except the CA Antivirus which was DRASTICALLY slowing down my internet connection AND my system Bootup time. To be more clear I have the following parts of the CA Internet Security Package installed alongside Avast Free Home Antivirus:
1:CA Personal Firewall with the integrated Cookie Control and Ad PopUp Blocker on medium settings
2:CA Anti-Spyware - Real-Time Protection is turned On.
3:CA Anti-Spam - On
This combination is pretty much transparent wrt internet speed and webpage loading, and I feel very well protected. For any who have a Vista OS Computer and RoadRunner for Internet Connection I think you will be well pleased with this combination.
If you decide to do this, the installer package for the CA Suite will tell you it is "incompatible with Avast". Ignore this and X out that popup. Do a "Custom Install" of the CA Security Suite. Check all Checkboxes for install EXCEPT the CA Antivirus. I assure you, the parts I listed above function perfectly with Avast. CA has updated the function of their Firewall and it now passes GRC/ShieldsUp Portscans 100% stealthed (even when I remove my hardware router from the connection chain).
Thank you again ALWIL/Avast, for all you do!!