Web shield = slow browsing for me

[Slovak]

I love the new version, but whenever I have the web shield active my browsing is too slow for my liking with either Firefox or Opera browsers. When I say slow I mean dial up slow and I am on a T-1 dsl connection here. Running win2k w/sp4. Any ideas?

[Vlk]

Do you have a firewall? If so, which one?
Also, does it help if you pause the WebShield module for the things to become fast again? Or you have it stop it completely?

BTW when things are slow... is there a process that is taking up considerable CPU? If so, which one? (please use the task manager to determine this).

Thanks
Vlk

[Slovak]

Yes I have a firewall, Kerio 2.1.5, and all I have to do is pause the module and all is fine.

[Vlk]

Pausing does the trick? This is extremely important. Pausing simply disables the scan (but all traffic is still routed via WebShield).

What CPU do you have? Is ashWebSv.exe taking up considerable CPU while you're browsing? How much objects does it scan? Do you have the "Intelligent Stream Scan" option (in WebShield's settings) enabled?

Thanks Vlk

[Slovak]

I have a P-III Tualatin server processor @1.4Ghz. It takes 5Mb of memory, and Process Explorer says it is using 0% CPU as I type and send this response to you. Yes Intelligent Stream Scan is enabled. How do I know how many objects it scans? Everything is set to defaults for the Web Shield.

[Vlk]

The number of scanned files is in the main on-access scanner window (the one with the provider icons on the left).

[Slovak]

It says 189

[shelfimage]

I'm a BIG fan of Avast and wish more folks would stray from the nortons, macafee's and even the computer associates from where I came.  So, I was glad to see the WebShield, but...

It has dramatically reduced my browsing experience:

Here's the line-up:
1.19AMD, 512MB DDR, XP Pro SP2, IE6 and/or FireFox w/ ZoneAlarm 5.5.062.011 running off of a routed ADSL connection w/DHCP NAT (last speed test on dslreports.com showed 4.5m down x 620k up). I believe I have the WinXP Pro firewall on with exception running b/c from what I can tell it is a basic "do want this app to go through or not?" without any details.

Avast WebShield:
To allow the same browsing experience as before I have to terminate the service.
I keep the intellignet stream scanning and have even loaded many of the URL's I frequent that aren't necessary to scan under the exceptions tab.  Simply pausing the service doesn't seem to help. 

I'm sure there must be a way to tweak the settings to use the shield without slowing web browsing, so I'm here to look around for explanations on how this new service works and definitions of the various settings.

-out.

[Vlk]

shelfimage, can you check your Privacy settings in ZA? It turns out that WebShield is currently incompatible with either of the two privacy settings controls (Cookie Control or Ad Blocking) set to High...

We're now working on a fix.

Thanks
Vlk

[Handsome]

I have the same problem too ..
to replay to this msg .. i had to turn the web shield off!!
Im using  Zonealarm and firefox !

[shelfimage]

shelfimage, can you check your Privacy settings in ZA? It turns out that WebShield is currently incompatible with either of the two privacy settings controls (Cookie Control or Ad Blocking) set to High...

Vlk-

My Default Privacy Settings in ZA:

I allow Session Cookies and Persistent Cookies by default because I use IE6 and Firefox to manage that.  And, since I started using ZA (~3yrs ago) I seemed to always have browser issues when I used it to manage the "1st party" session and persistent cookies. 

I don't use it to manage cookie expiration except for notorius 3rd party cookies like "ad.doubleclick.net" etc., which I'll also set to block session and persistent cookies as well on an as needed basis.

Cookies Tab

• Block 3rd party cookies - checked(blocked)
• Disable web bugs - checked(blocked)
• Remove private header info- checked(blocked)

Ad Blocking Tab

• Banner/Skyscraper ads- unchecked(allowed)
• Popup/popunder- checked(blocked)
• Animation- checked(allowed)

Add Void Control... "A box I can mouse over to get the ad to appear"
[/list]

Note: when loading the URL's that WebShield can exclude when filtering content, these URL's were the same that I set-up in ZA to allow all cookies and popups in most cases.  If there's any exception, it would be to block web bugs and pop ups.  But, the popup blocker is a bit redundant now that IE6 has that feature - I just haven't tested IE6 to see if it can handle it by itself.  Although, I know that Zone Alarm actually misses some because I'll get some popup alerts from IE6..hmm>? wondering if ZA is worth it - Do ya have a firewall yet?

hope this helps & thanks.

  P.S. I mentioned that I thought  I had both the WinXPPro firewall and ZA firewall running simultaneously in the last post - I didn't.  ZA shuts of the Win product by default.  I turned off the ZA option and turned ont he win firewall to run with ZA and it didn't alter the results any way...

[janoskij]

RE: "It turns out that WebShield is currently incompatible with either of the two privacy settings controls (Cookie Control or Ad Blocking) set to High..."

I did not have ZA Pro set to High block but I still encountered many problems. This was especially apparent with Firefox (my perferred browser).

I tried a few of the suggested listed here with no success.

I have had to turn off WebShield (pausing didn't help)
 

This has been the first real problem that I have had with Avast since switching 1 year ago.

[Thrash]

Hi.

I also have some problems with CPU usage.
No 100% and it´s seems to be more a problem with scanning firefox than scanning the webstream.

Every time I open or reload a website the CPU Usage (Firefox 1.0.6 and avast together) go for a short second up to 100%. That´s alone is not the problem (this Firefox makes sometimes) but what´s new, when I listen to music, too (with Winamp 5.xx) the sound is spluttering and hangs a little bit.
That´s bad by listening to music.

Here a overview over my versions:
- Winamp 5.094
- Windows XP Prof. + SP2
- Firefox 1.0.6
- avast! 4.6.691 Jul2005 with VPS from today.

And it´s not the VRDB!


I now paused the webshield and it´s also stuttering.
I think it´s while scanning the cache or the firefox directory while browsing.
It is a idea to exclude the firefox from scanning it? Not really I think!?

The Firefox directory maybe, but not really the cache directory because from some websites maybe are downloading javascripts with viruses and such things.

What do you mean?

Or it is only a problem with this lame cpu?
I have a Athlon XP 1600+ (1,4 GHz)

greets

[Lisandro]

No 100% and it´s seems to be more a problem with scanning firefox than scanning the webstream.

This should be the normal behavior... scans as fast as it can.
But, you can change the music application priority and then you'll be running it at high priority. Test creating a link to:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "XQSHP" /high "C:\Program_to_be_executed.exe"
This will start with High Priority the 'program' linked, in your case, the music application 

[Thrash]

Hej!

It´s not fully fixed, but it is real better!
Thank you very much!
It´s great how much someone knows here!
I´m really not a newbe, but some things are really still new for me at all!

I think avast is my new "love".
It´s really good ... better as it has to be for free ...

Where is your kitty?