Hello, I have been a user for many years now and just recently noticed that the Avast Free Web Shield is causing some severe loss of bandwidth for me.
Avast Free 7.1.0456 - Win 7 Ult. 64-bit - Chrome 20.0.1132.47 or IE 8
I am also using Malwarebytes real-time protection, but no other security software. I have tried uninstalling MB but it makes no difference, and I have been running them together for just over a year now without any such issues.
Basically as you can see below, my download speed is dropping a ton when I have the Web Shield enabled… I can toggle that off/on and re-run the test and it’s the only shield that effects the score. My cable internet package is rated for 12Mbps and I usually test around 10-13Mbps depending on the time of day. When I leave the Web Shield disabled speeds are fine, but enabled and it drops big time.
I was noticing some occasional stuttering in my playback of internet radio (Spotify), YouTube, etc and started checking out my Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net results which eventually led me to the Web Shield.
If I can provide more specific information please let me know, I mostly wanted to post this to notify Avast of a potential issue. Thanks!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7108/7500971520_a345078d6a_b.jpg
No issues for me am on slower broadband 6mbs and web shield is ok and not affecting Youtube playback. Was your speed better on the older version of avast?? You can roll back and get a old setup file from file hippo site.
By the way how many background processes have you running on your computer. Toolbars etc consume resourses
I am running 26 on my laptop on xp. The more you have running the slower your computer will be depending how much ram you have got.
Hi bobo1
I am a gaming enthusiast so I have a pretty beefy computer that I built myself. Core i7 3770K @ 4.4GHz, 16GB DDR3, 256GB SSD, etc… so it’s not a resource issue. 
I am not really sure how long ago this started, but it’s been significantly much worse of late which prompted me to investigate. I have been using Avast Free since 2007’ish and never had any trouble like this since they introduced the Web Shields however long ago.
I will try uninstalling and use 6.0.1367 which is the last version 6.x available on FileHippo.com and share my results in a bit. Thanks!
I generally don’t see any issues, and normally I only test when someone else posts results, so I ran a test again and actually got my fastest download speed just over 38Mb/s and my sort of average for upload speed. My connection restrictions are Maximum download 40mbps and upload of 2mbps.
So as you can see they are very close to the theoretical maximums and no one is ever going to get 100% of that due to degradation, etc. See image which shows the test today and some history going back to February 2012.
I have done some test in the past where the speed with the web shield enabled have actually been faster than with it disabled.
Hi DavidR
Well I have to disagree with you there… since as you can see in my screenshot that I am meeting and or exceeding my promised 12Mbps of bandwidth with the shield disabled. I will agree that nobody should expect to see 100% at all times but saying “no one is ever going to get 100% of that due to degradation” is just not true.
Also as you can see in my screen shot I am going from around 12Mbps to 2-3Mbps… that is an excessive drop in speed wouldn’t you agree? :o
I tried to install 6.0.1367 which I downloaded from FileHippo.com and when the install was finished I was just back on version 7.x ?
I then downloaded 5.1.889 and it said that version was too old and started downloading the latest installer by itself… so oh well.
The purpose of my post isn’t to say you aren’t having a problem but to show it isn’t across the board. My mention of 100% was simply because my results are very close to that impossible dream, achieving what your connection promises.
What is your firewall ?
Apparently rolling back the system date a bit allows for the installation of the older version.