Web Shield

[readtugwell]

Hi, I have had problems today accessing the internet. I spent all day trying to find out why! I have found out that i have to turn off the Web Shield on Avast. once i did this the internet was working fine. I am using avast 4.8 home edition, and i am running Windows XP. I have had avast for over a year and have never had a problem untill now, i have even uninstalled and reinstalled but this has not worked. Do i really need the Web Shield on? if i do then is there a way for me to browse the web and have web shield active? Please can someone help.  Thanks

[onlysomeone]

Hi readtugwell!

Which other security software do you use? and which one did you use before avast!? (antivirus, antispyware, firewall,...)
which on is your firewall?

yours
onlysomeone

[Lisandro]

WebShield is a must have...
Something is blocking it and, as a consequence, your Internet activity.
Firewall? Old antivirus?

[DavidR]

I will deal with the important bit first, yes, you most certainly need the web shield, the proliferation of hacked sites presents a high risk and the web shield is very hot on detecting these and blocking the redirects to sites running malicious scripts.

What is your firewall ?
Does it allow ashWebSv.exe internet access ?
- If it does delete the entry for it and reconnect to the internet and browse, this should force the firewall to ask permission again.

[Sammo]

I can confirm that Web Shield will slow down my internet access with Firefox. This is sometimes intermittent but always occurs when I open a group of tabs. Some of the tabs just wont load at all. Some time Google searches take forever and sometimes the Speakeasy speed test shows that Web Shield slows down speed by as much as 20%. I have Outpost 2009 free as the only other running security software. Outpost has given all of the avast services complete access to everything. My system is running XP SP3. When I disable Web Shield the above slowdowns do no occur. Just for a test I uninstalled avast and installed NOD32. The NOD32 web shield did not slow down Firefox at all doing the exact same stuff that avast web shield did. I have since uninstalled NOD32 and reinstalled avast and the same slowdowns occur again.

[Tarq57]

Anyone having these problems happen to notice if they started to occur after updating Firefox to 3.5?

[Sammo]

Anyone having these problems happen to notice if they started to occur after updating Firefox to 3.5?

I believe that this could be the case with me.

[Tarq57]

I'm having intermittent connection issues, that do not seem to be altered by changing any of the avat settings, nor suspending Threatfire, that's why I ask.
This only happened after updating Firefox.
Sorry to (possibly) stray off topic, but may be a factor.

[rdmaloyjr]

Sammo,

I'm on high speed cable internet, internet speed with cable internet varies with the number of subscribers online.  At times it will vary greatly and at other times not much.

With ZA Free there was a definite slowdown with Web Shield running.  With Web Shield paused there was no slowdown. 

Now that I'm using OA fw, there is no noticeable slowdown with Web Shield on or off.  I do my internet speed checking with Speakeasy.  I did my speed tests with six tabs opened in Opera.

OP 6.5 Free greatly slowed my internet.  ZA Free didn't slowdown the 'net anywhere near as much as OP 2009 6.5 Free.

[Sammo]

OP 6.5 Free greatly slowed my internet.  ZA Free didn't slowdown the 'net anywhere near as much as OP 2009 6.5 Free.

I just ran another test. I uninstalled Outpost 2009 free and installed Online Armor. I got the exact same results wit OA as OP - no improvement when using the web shield. I just can't use it, it slows down Firefox too much. At least I use OpenDNS with the Phish filter.

[roro]

I am curious if Firefox 3.5 could be causing the problem?  I noticed that both Tarq57 and Sammo mentioned it.  Has anyone else upgraded and had the same problem.  I haven't upgraded from 3.0 yet and don't want to if it causes problems with Avast Webshield.
According to the Firefox website, it is supposed to be faster.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html

RoRo

[Sammo]

I am curious if Firefox 3.5 could be causing the problem?  I noticed that both Tarq57 and Sammo mentioned it.  Has anyone else upgraded and had the same problem.  I haven't upgraded from 3.0 yet and don't want to if it causes problems with Avast Webshield.
According to the Firefox website, it is supposed to be faster.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html

RoRo

There are known problems with Firefox 3.5's ScriptMonkey. I read that a patch is coming out any day. I hope this will help.

[rdmaloyjr]

I just ran another test. I uninstalled Outpost 2009 free and installed Online Armor. I got the exact same results wit OA as OP - no improvement when using the web shield. I just can't use it, it slows down Firefox too much. At least I use OpenDNS with the Phish filter.

You can always use Opera.  It's faster, more secure & more user friendly than other browser.

Now that I'm using OA fw, there is no noticeable slowdown with Web Shield on or off.  I do my internet speed checking with Speakeasy.    I did my speed tests with six tabs opened in Opera.

[Sammo]

Well, I just did a test by running Firefox 3.11 and while the multiple tab freezing problem was much less than in FF 3.5, I still get about 10% or more speed reduction at Speakeasy when Web Shield in enabled. Just not worth the bother running it. I have not experienced this slow down with any other AV's web shield, only avast's. They should look into this.

[readtugwell]

Hi, thanks to the replys, i am still having to turn off web shield and the only firewall i have is windows. if i turn the web shield on then i cant use the internet. does anyone have any other ideas thanks.