Avast 5 WebShield slowing down your web surfing?

[bob3160]

Sounds to me like the webshield isn't allowed to access the web and therefore you can't access the internet.
Is avast allowed access through your firewall

[mkis]

@ SafeSurf - would you be able provide the forum with a HijackThis log?

You probably already know how to do this, but just in case -

Click here – (will take direct to download)
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/download/8571e06e5eb8ab03c649f3b5d647c599/

Download and run.
Then do scan and save a log file.

Post the log file to this thread. If it is too large you may have to post in two parts.

[SafeSurf]

I decided to go back to v. 4.8.1368 for now, and everything is working fine.  I'll wait for the next release and try then.  Thank you.

[Vlk]

Guys, we've just found that the paid version of Malwarebytes (namely its "IP Protection" component) is responsible for a real network slowdown (and DPC latencies, too). And for some reason, it gets ever worse when avast is installed (I suppose that's because with avast's WebShield in place, the connections are doubles [as WebShield acts as a HTTP proxy]).

Is anyone of you guys using the paid version of Malwarebytes?


SafeSurf, was AvastSvc.exe allowed to access the Web in OA? This is the process that is hosting the WebShield in avast 5.0 (in v4.x, WebShield had a standalone process called ashWebSv.exe).

Thanks
Vlk

[Yezinki]

Yes Vlk, I am using MBAM paid/resident with Avast 5 Free with Webshield turned OFF......now I have IP protection turned OFF MBAM as to reduce DPC latency.

Regards!

[mkis]

cannot be 100%, but can report outcomes to channels in timely fashion, good work avast

always have mbam on demand here Vlk

avast! Pro (resident - after testing, I finalise my buy tonight) and Online Armor premium (firewall)
mvps with Hostsman and HostsServer, SystemExplorer (portable)

[Vlk]

Well the DPC Latencies with MBAM IP Protection are really horrible as far as I can see here on my Vista test system.

I mean, download the DPC Latency checker (http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml) and go to a site like www.speedtest.net to do an Internet speed test (with IP Protection enabled). On this test system, I see latencies of up to 250,000 us (yes that's a quarter of a second!) and yes, the mouse cursor keeps skipping while the test is running. And the reported download speeds are way lower than they're supposed to be (even more so with avast Web Shield enabled).

Turning off IP Protection resolves the problem immediately.

[Rednose]

I can confirm this.

With MBAM IP protection on I had latencies up to 44.000 us, and my download speed droppped about 20%

Greetz, Red.

[YoKenny]

I am running MBAM paid on both of my systems and I do not see network slowdowns on my systems but I do see the occasional problem with DPC Latencies reported by the DPC Latency checker on my Windows 7 system:
 http://www.speedtest.net/result/764742528.png

[Knoc-One]

Ur all welcome
just give me 5 years of free Avast pro. for finding the problem with mbam
 
Soren dideriksen

[schoolmaster]

No difference between WS on or off. Web Shield just blocked a virus just a few minutes ago. It must be working because I was in a benign situation and not a high virus situation.

[aMUSiC]

I'll bump this a bit for Richpowell's sake as I am also a multi-user application developer using the SmartFox server.

First of all, the SmartFox server (www.smartfoxserver.com) is an XML socket server which allows primarily flash made applications to connect to it and thus make them multiuser (like multiplayer games etc). The default port that smartfox is listening for connections at is 9339. I set SmartFox on a dedicated server and had it run on port 80 in order to allow people who are behind firewalled environments (like workplaces) to access our games and not be blocked. The data that are being transfered back and forth between SmartFox and the clients are pure text, XML, JSON or simple text formatted.

Now, I get a lot of traffic on my server and for the past couple of years I have been getting a lot of complaints from people who were unable to connect. After some digging through I found out that the vast majority of them were using Avast. Adding my SmartFox server's IP address to the exclusion list of the Web Shield in Avast 4 would do the trick and allow people to connect to my server just fine. Unfortunately this is not the case with Avast 5, where no matter what I put in the exclusion list, the Web Shield will always block the access. The only way to connect is totally disabling the Web Shield, which even though I have absolutely no hesitation to do, I cannot in a sound mind advise my users to follow as a practice.

Also, SmartFox sports a fallback http connection method on a different port (443 in my server), but it's limited to 10 concurrent users, so sometimes (especially late at night where there are few only connected) you can connect to the game through the fallback method even if the WebShield is active... if you're lucky to find an empty slot.

I'm willing to provide any assistance and data, if I were directed to the right person from Avast so we can solve this issue that has been going on for more than 2 years now.

The app if you want to check it out and see what's going on is published as a facebook app here: http://apps.facebook.com/tavli_me  (it's a backgammon game, default language is greek but you can switch it to english).

[PamJ]

What are consider good upload and download speeds?  (Comcast highspeed.) 

I tried with WS on and off--didn't make any difference in the ping tests.

Thanks!

Pam

[mkis]

Hi PamJ

Would be absolute normal for there not to be any WS difference with Comcast highspeed

refer back to start of thread for examples of different speeds, different outcomes

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56694.msg478240#msg478240

I have relatively low speed (say, average 1 Megabit per second) and wireless (so fluctuates)
on smooth running system
notice some difference - 1.12 WS off  =  1.09 WS on w/o scan html  =  1.05 WS w/scan html traffic

My normal - with my speed hitting near its current real high  (potential max - not real - is 7.2Mbps)
this with everything go okay (on smooth running system)

A shield scan is bound to have some effect - standard rule that run antivirus scan can affect performances

I can only speak for myself PamJ, so note here -

(1) not always will everything be going normal on a system (as with systems running in sub-optimal environments, causing errors, discrepancies)

(2) nor will the user always want this to be the case because they may want to run programs or apps that exceed normal expectation (overclock, customise system, multimedia features, games, etc...and of course, when testing a system) so there may always be exception to the rules

I make these comments as you bring the thread back to OP where Vlk puts his query concerning web shield

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56694.msg478220#msg478220

I assume Vlk wants thread set to OP, but I drift off/topic at times before being bought back into line

 

[PamJ]

Thanks, mkis.  My upload and download speeds are different--by a lot-- and for some reason I couldn't find any here that listed both of them. Was wondering if there should be that big a difference (20 download/2.5 upload)  But I did find the listed speeds on Comcast's site and both my upload and downloads are running higher than listed most of the time. All's good!

Pam