Web surfing really slow?

[iga]

Hi all

I love Avast but when i'm surfing the web it can run very slow some times really bad i did not really have this prob befor, i was useing avg and never had slow down in my web surfing like this!

if i stop on-access protection my web speeds up when i'm surfing but if i turn it on again it slows down,
why is avast slowing down my speed so much on the web any help on speeding things up a bit?

i use firefox thanks

[DavidR]

I can't recall but I don't believe AVG has a Web Shield (http scanning function) so that would be a difference, but it really shouldn't be that noticeable.

What is your OS ?
What is your firewall ?

[iga]

My os is win xp home
my firewall is zonealarm

[DavidR]

I was hoping you were going to say Vista and zone alarm as there is a bug in ZA with Vista that slows down browsing and that isn't just with avast. You should only Terminate the Web Shield, rather than all on-access protection, that would at least give the standard shield as a fall back.

Is it ZA Pro or free ?

I'm on a dial-up connection and there is no appreciable difference with the web shield enabled, I have XP Pro and Outpost Pro firewall. So the only difference is our firewalls. However there are many forum members that also use ZA and there is no flood of topics relating to this problem. I'm not saying it is not happening just there is likely to be something else in the mix.

What other security based software do you have that might have an effect ?

Other than AVG, have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

[iga]

I have ZA Firewall free,

I don't have any other security software running on my pc,
At times it does seem to take up alot of resources at time's,

i have a broadband line maybe other people don't seem to have many probs
but i seem to be a little with my web surfing at times,
I do hope that they prob will make avast have a lower footprint on ur pc in new builds that come out
don't get me wrong i love avast i just wish it did not take up much resources on my pc and my web was not slowed down by it but i still love it!!

and i have

p4 3.6GHz HT
win xp home sp2
3.00GB RAM
Free za firewall
broadband line.

And i don't have any other AV on my pc and AVG is gone!!

[DavidR]

Whilst I would like you to try something and see if that has any effect.

Open the Web Shield detailed view and in the Redirected HTTP ports windows, remove the 80 from the window. This effectively stops the web shield redirecting and monitoring http traffic.

Now open up your browser/s and set it to manually use the web shield proxy port, see tutorials below.

For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox

If you feel up to a more time consuming test, don't feel that you have to do this. Personally I would like you to try another firewall (a large step/request) such as Comodo Firewall, which I feel would give you better protection. The ZA Free version is crippled as far as outbound protection goes. In the Program Control, configuration area, the slider will only goes as far as Medium protection in the hope you will purchase the Pro version.

See http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php.