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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 05:05:32 PM

Title: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 05:05:32 PM
I have had that issue since v5.0.394, in pro version only. Every time i open the web browser, web shield desn't do anything but network shield does. Why is that? is this a bug? or what could it be? I don't have another security software but MSE, and is deactivated.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 05:08:04 PM
Here the network shield screenshot.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: DavidR on January 29, 2010, 05:32:43 PM
The Network Shield can't do the Web Shields job, which is scanning http traffic. The network shield is checking DNS access (to block malicious sites/exploits) of which there are considerably more accesses per page than the web shield would scan.

Your problem is not that the network shield is doing the web shields job, but that the web shield on lyur system isn't doing its job.


You don't say what your browser/s is/are nor what your firewall is ?
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 05:45:06 PM
I only have IE 8 and Firefox 3.6, and no firewall from third parties, but Windows firewall from win 7 ultimate 64 bits. and using both browsers the webshield is not doing anything. Just in IE 8 it does some job, but in the graphics or log it doesn't show anything, but in firefox, it doesn't do anything.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: DavidR on January 29, 2010, 05:54:36 PM
Try manually setting your browser to use the web shield proxy.
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ieproxy.htm)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ffproxy.htm)

Whilst these may be for older versions of the browsers, I'm sure you should be able to find the equivalent settings.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 06:13:52 PM
I will try that, thankz, but if it still don't scan, i will post the results. Thank you friend.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: cazoza on January 29, 2010, 06:40:29 PM
Try manually setting your browser to use the web shield proxy.
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ieproxy.htm)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ffproxy.htm)

Whilst these may be for older versions of the browsers, I'm sure you should be able to find the equivalent settings.

Thanks pal, this worked for me. For all the forum users, it's awesome to see how this community helps others to solve their problems, it awesome to be part of this. Thanks to all of you.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on January 29, 2010, 07:33:19 PM
You're welcome.
Title: Re: [5.0.396]Network shield doing web shield work?
Post by: wonderwrench on January 31, 2010, 05:01:07 PM
Try manually setting your browser to use the web shield proxy.
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ieproxy.htm)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox (http://www.avast.com/files/tutorials/ws_ffproxy.htm)

Whilst these may be for older versions of the browsers, I'm sure you should be able to find the equivalent settings.

I tried this and it does fix the web shield. The trouble is it slows the web down dramatically. My 7 meg connection acts like 512 k DSL. Prior to the change web pages that took 1 or 2 seconds to load now take 5 to 10 seconds.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on January 31, 2010, 05:21:40 PM
Then I fear there is something else in the mix as this isn't normal or it would be very widely reported in the forums and that just isn't seen.

What OS, browser/s and firewall are you using ?
What other security applications are you using ?

Please now modify your forum profile information, signature, to reflect your system setup, see mine, etc. That stops us having to keep asking about your system.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on January 31, 2010, 06:11:34 PM
Then I fear there is something else in the mix as this isn't normal or it would be very widely reported in the forums and that just isn't seen.

What OS, browser/s and firewall are you using ?
What other security applications are you using ?

Please now modify your forum profile information, signature, to reflect your system setup, see mine, etc. That stops us having to keep asking about your system.

Most of the info you asked for is and was already in my sig before I made the post. I wonder if it takes a few minutes to show up? I see the same results using Firefox 3.6, IE 8 32 or 64 bit and Google chrome 4.0.249.78. Other security apps, Threat fire and windows firewall. Disabling Threatfire or uninstalling it makes no difference.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on January 31, 2010, 07:02:35 PM
There was no information there when I posted or I wouldn't have asked. When I open a topic all posts are frozen at that time and I normally have several topics open and on the go, so that could explain the difference.

There is normally no need to have to manually apply the proxy settings in the browser, so what errors were you getting before ?

I'm still feeling my way in 5.0 and normally in 4.8 I would ask if you use a proxy to connect to the internet, but I'm not sure if having manually set the browser proxy that is valid or not ?
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on January 31, 2010, 07:37:43 PM
There was no information there when I posted or I wouldn't have asked. When I open a topic all posts are frozen at that time and I normally have several topics open and on the go, so that could explain the difference.

There is normally no need to have to manually apply the proxy settings in the browser, so what errors were you getting before ?

I'm still feeling my way in 5.0 and normally in 4.8 I would ask if you use a proxy to connect to the internet, but I'm not sure if having manually set the browser proxy that is valid or not ?

I noticed an overall lack of web shield activity so I thought I would give the proxy setting a try. Without the proxy web shield activity was 1/10 or less than network shield activity. Maybe it should be this way but it seemed strange to me. After setting up the proxy the its about 1/2. I would think the web shield would handle only and all WAN activity and the Network shield would handle only and all LAN activity. This must not be the case.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on January 31, 2010, 08:06:46 PM
 I did a quick test using fire fox. I cleared the browser cache and then loaded Firefox, jumped on the Avast forums and took a screen shot of the web shield activity. I then repeated the process without the proxy. See the screen shots below. What is means? Who knows but I'm going to remove the proxy setting from all my browsers as the performance hit is just too much.

With the proxy
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/wonderwrench/Misc/Proxy.jpg)

Without the proxy
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/wonderwrench/Misc/No_proxy.jpg)
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on January 31, 2010, 08:18:27 PM
Here is a screen shot of the network shield doing the same. I think it just looks like its doing more because the charts are using different data.
AKA connections verses pages. It now makes sense that the network shield would have more activity than the web shield.

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/wonderwrench/Misc/Network_shield.jpg)
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: zfactor on January 31, 2010, 08:47:59 PM
i had this issue but only after installing. i kept trying to start it and it would not. after maybe 3 or 4 reboots it was fine i didnt even have to do anything it fixed itself and has been fine ever since.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on January 31, 2010, 09:02:18 PM
@ wonderwrench
I'm aware of the apparent imbalance between the web shield and network shield figures, mine can be about 1/10 at times.

Right now for all day, 533/2987, the problem is that you can't compare these two figures as the two shields do different things.

The web shield scans 1 web page and any active elements when you open it; the network shield would first check the IP of the target page and compare against its malicious sites and the same would go for other external items loaded in the page, images, etc. So there is always likely to be a disparity, not that charts are using different data, just that they do different jobs. However, this network shield checking shouldn't bring down the page loading speed by anything like you're experiencing.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on February 01, 2010, 07:06:59 AM
@ wonderwrench
I'm aware of the apparent imbalance between the web shield and network shield figures, mine can be about 1/10 at times.

Right now for all day, 533/2987, the problem is that you can't compare these two figures as the two shields do different things.

The web shield scans 1 web page and any active elements when you open it; the network shield would first check the IP of the target page and compare against its malicious sites and the same would go for other external items loaded in the page, images, etc. So there is always likely to be a disparity, not that charts are using different data, just that they do different jobs. However, this network shield checking shouldn't bring down the page loading speed by anything like you're experiencing.

You mean the web shield should not slow page loading? I can't understand it but it does slow web page loading. IMO Avast 5 is much more of a hog than 4 ever was. I have installed 4 on many machines and never noticed a performance hit. When I went from 4 to 5 on the box in my sig I could feel the difference. Its just heavier. 5 really slows a system down right after an install because its actively scanning most everything that moves until the persistent cache is built. I installed 5.0.396 free on 3 boxes today and found the best thing to do was a full scan right after the install. Once complete system performance was acceptable. BTW 2 boxes were Vista 32 bit sp2 and the installs went perfectly. The XP 32 bit sp3 box locked up on shut down after the install. I waited for about 10 minutes but ended up doing a hard reset. It booted fine and seems to be working fine. 5 should have better protection than 4 but I wish 5 was as light and fast as 4 always was.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on February 01, 2010, 05:49:58 PM
Neither of those two shields should significantly slow browsing to the point that there is really noticable differences, or this forum would be flooded with such reports and I don't see them.

There is most certainly something else going on in your system and I'm at a loss as to what that is. First you can't browse with the web shield enabled (and it shouldn't be the windows firewall blocking) and when the browser proxy is manually set to use the web shield and it slows your browsing. To me both of the above point to conflict which is initially blocking the web shield and once the web shield is working there appears to be other conflict slowing loading (possibly double scanning), but I really don't know want that might be as you have tried uninstalling threatfire.

avast 5 is streets ahead of 4.8 the problem is that you aren't seeing this and I really don't know why.

Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

~~~~
You could try a clean reinstall using the latest avast version, 5.0.396 (as the start point, don't know what version you initially installed). I'm taking the precaution of running two uninstall utilities, one specifically for avast 5 and the old one to ensure any remnants of avast4 are still present.

Download the latest version of avast 5.0.396 free antivirus - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html?2010-01-29 (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html?2010-01-29) and save it to your hard disk.

Download the avast5 Uninstall Utility (internal build) http://public.avast.com/~forejt/aswClear.exe (http://public.avast.com/~forejt/aswClear.exe).

Download the avast! 4 Uninstall Utility, find it here (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html) and save it to your HDD.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: wonderwrench on February 02, 2010, 07:24:12 PM
Neither of those two shields should significantly slow browsing to the point that there is really noticable differences, or this forum would be flooded with such reports and I don't see them.

There is most certainly something else going on in your system and I'm at a loss as to what that is. First you can't browse with the web shield enabled (and it shouldn't be the windows firewall blocking) and when the browser proxy is manually set to use the web shield and it slows your browsing. To me both of the above point to conflict which is initially blocking the web shield and once the web shield is working there appears to be other conflict slowing loading (possibly double scanning), but I really don't know want that might be as you have tried uninstalling threatfire.

avast 5 is streets ahead of 4.8 the problem is that you aren't seeing this and I really don't know why.

Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

~~~~
You could try a clean reinstall using the latest avast version, 5.0.396 (as the start point, don't know what version you initially installed). I'm taking the precaution of running two uninstall utilities, one specifically for avast 5 and the old one to ensure any remnants of avast4 are still present.

Download the latest version of avast 5.0.396 free antivirus - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html?2010-01-29 (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html?2010-01-29) and save it to your hard disk.

Download the avast5 Uninstall Utility (internal build) http://public.avast.com/~forejt/aswClear.exe (http://public.avast.com/~forejt/aswClear.exe).

Download the avast! 4 Uninstall Utility, find it here (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html) and save it to your HDD.
  • 1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
  • 2. run the avast! 5 Uninstall Utility, run the avast! 4 Uninstall Utility, reboot.  If step 1 failed it may be necessary to run this from safe mode, once complete reboot into normal mode.
  • 3. install the latest version, reboot.

The difference is noticeable to me. Web page load speed and overall system performance is hampered compared to 4.8. I have upgraded 6 PC's of varying hardware specs and OS and I noticed the difference between 4.8 home and 5.0.396 free on everyone of them. Each PC had 4.8 home to start with. 4.8 was uninstalled from add/remove programs then rebooted to safe mode and then cleanup tool was run before installing 5.0.396 free. Now I'm not saying the PC's are not usable as they are. 5.0396 free is as nearly as much of a system hog as Norton/McAfee/Trendmicro Intenet suites are. Its light on ram and CPU usage but still slows systems down compared to 4.8 home. Oh and my PC never had any antivirus or antimalware program installed. I went from 4.8 home to 5 free.
Title: Re: [5.0.396] Web shield not working? [SOLVED]
Post by: DavidR on February 02, 2010, 09:04:25 PM
I'm not disputing it isn't noticeable to you, just that that isn't normal and I really have no idea why that is.