Avast 5 Network Shield

[ahwphx]

I have noticed that by disabling the network shield my speedtest downloads are improved versus having the shield on.

Also, I have never seen this shield block anything since it has been installed.

Is the network shield necessary if you are behind a router with a SPI firewall?

[Pondus]

The shield is fooling the speed test, so to see if a slowdown is correct you have to download a big file like Xp-SP3 316mb

you download 5 times with the shiled on and take the time, then you do the same with the shield off

i have tested this and found only a very small slowdown. malwarebytes IP protection is also fooling the speedtest

[DavidR]

<snip>
Is the network shield necessary if you are behind a router with a SPI firewall?

Absolutely, as the router does nothing that the network shield covers, the blocking of malicious sites and the blocking of common worm and virus exploit ports. The network shield is not a firewall.

Now a days the most common route of infection is the internet and from that the most common hit is from hacked sites (on the increase) which try to redirect or run scripts from malicious sites and the network shield ban block this access to the malicious site.

- See http://www.scmagazineus.com/Every-36-seconds-a-website-is-infected/article/140414/.

[ahwphx]

Anyone have a site the network shield will block access to?

[llariel]

try this: www.amprox.com

[ahwphx]

Thanks much....I'm a believer!

[DavidR]

We all are