Hi,
My ISP has recently upgraded my cable connection from 4Mb to 10Mb. After the
upgrade went through I didn’t notice as much of a speed increase as I had
expected so I went through a number of different tests to see what I was
getting.
Most of the online speed testers were reporting absolute nonsense (including
Dan Elwell’s Broadband Speedtest, which I have always found to be one of the
best), so I resorted to downloading large game demo files directly off my
ISPs server and monitoring the average speeds over a number of subsequent
downloads).
My results indicated I was getting about half of what I would reasonably
expect from a 10Mb line.
I made a number of tweaks to my PC and cable modem which yielded some
reasonable results (the most significant of which was changing the upstream
channel on my cable modem). Despite this I was still only getting about 60%
of my expected bandwidth.
I then decided to try it with ZoneAlarm and Avast Antivirus switched off. My
download speeds immediately jumped up to what I’d expected.
It seems that with either ZA or Avast running on their own my download
speeds are fine, whenever I turn them both on together my speeds drop from
1100KB/s to around 650KB/s.
Can anyone explain why this would be happening? Is there anything I can do
(other than not using one of the two applications) to remedy this?
Many thanks,
Ed.
I would also be interested in an answer to this one, as I’ve been going through a similar experience…
I would like to know too. Even with the latest version (which is faster than the previous ones) I notice that avast! slows my internet speed.
If you’re talking about WebShield taking performance of your computer because it scans the HTTP traffic, well, you must choose a balance between performance and protection. Although I do not recommend, you can disable WebShield provider :
From the first post in this thread…
Tech:
Point well taken, but should WebShield affect a connection this much, or would you be able to comment on the problem with both running?
Edit: Typo
It seems that everytime somebody posts about this same issue the only answer is “you can disable it if you want to”. I just wanted to know why it happens, I think it’s a really bad idea to turn off the WebShield.
It shouldn’t, specially with a high speed connection as you have.
Besides the incompatibility between ZA Pro privacy features and WebShield, both programs (specially the free version) can run togheter without that much trouble. It’s difficult to say… Which is your avast Standard Shield sensitivity level? High or Normal?
No… we try to solve the problems… but computering is not mathmatics… there are a lot of options, troubles, circunstances…
If we do not say ‘disable’ we will need to say ‘uninstall’… silence (not posting) is not a solution either.
At least, the users can see they’re not alone, abandoned with the program without help, companion, etc.
Maybe Lukor could say something from Alwil’s part.
We all think the same…
That’s right… we’re not alone. Thanks for that. 
Tech,
Normal.
My set-up’s a little different than ed2020, in that I use the free ZA version rather than the Pro version, but, I have the same problem.
A tech from my provider suggested a fresh pot of coffee, and then to do this:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/578
I haven’t had a chance to go through it and try it, but it sounds like a possible answer to increase download speed.
This is probably old hat to you people, but new to me. I’ll let you know…
It works. Download speed doubled.
ed2020, please try it, it might be your answer too.