I have an Administrator account in my PC -the account which I use- and a Limited User account for my mom and sister.
Usually I launch web browsers with lots of tabs - Opera has 30+ in this very moment. I have also a slow internet connection, 600k, so it takes for a while after all pages are loaded.
I want to know if I can safely disable WS module because its speed boost. I already launch the browsers (IE7, Portable FF2 and OperaUSB 9) with the DropMyRights security hardener so I see no point in slow down web surfing.
On the other hand because my mom and sister don’t use internet so intensive as I do I choose to let WS provider on in their account - altough they use a rights limited account.
Web Shield is the fastest HTTP scanner available in ANY antivirus. So disabling it is a rather stupid thing to do. Keep it enabled. I know i do and i have quiet aggressive browser settings and everything loads in matter of miliseconds or second. Connection bandwidth is always fully utilized.
I don’t think WS provider has the FASTEST scan algorithm out there, I understand you like avast! very much like me, but NOD’s and even Avira are fastest than avast! at this point, at least in my personal home test. WS is fast indeed compared with the rest of AV’s out there.
When I suggested turn-off WS provider I did it after reading a topic in which (I think was) Tech or DavidR explains that the WS provider just tries to catch virus before Standard Protection provider does it, that is before downloading completely a file or code portion to the hard disk.
To my thinking, and I could be wrong, the WS provider have no use whith a web browser running in a “secure” environment; I realized this thing just yesterday, until that day I used to think the WS provider was a very important part of the protection mechanism of the installed AV and I enjoyed to see it on 24/7/365. (How tricky can be the brain!)
I don’t consider myself a tarad or ‘idiot’ when I suggest what I suggest, I may be wrong but I’m not and idiot, RejZoR ::). I have large experience with all kind of software included AV one, and what I don’t know ask. Again, I consider running WS along DropMyRights-protected web browser is a waste of resources, and the waste of resources CPU & RAM- is the least an avast! power user wants.
So still, what you think forum genius about this? Can I have a second opinion before accepting my faith?
Can you drop some useful settings for us? Thanks…
When I use Linux, pages load very very faster than when Windows. I know that Windows are verifying much more than Linux and this makes browsing slower… Can you help us?
I’m a dial-up account user and see zero impact keeping the web shield enabled.
I use firefox and have about 6 tabs (from my last session, usually my most commonly used pages) which open when I start firefox, yet doesn’t impact on anything as firefox doesn’t re-load the page but takes the content from cache only when I refresh the page does it have any impact.
I certainly don’t feel having both dropmyrights and the web shield is a waste of resources and it certainly wasn’t I who explains “that the WS provider just tries to catch virus before Standard Protection provider does it, that is before downloading completely a file or code portion to the hard disk.”
That may well be what it does, pre-scans traffic before it ends up on your HDD, but I would never contemplate/suggest disabling the web shield because the standard shield should catch it when it arrives on the HDD. There are too many reasons why this could be flawed, one the settings of the standard shield may exclude scanning certain files, whilst the web shield doesn’t have the same constraints it scans all http port 80 traffic.
I have always been a great believer in prevention rather than cure, stopping any malware getting on to the system is better than cleaning up after it gets there.
DropMyRights is a good tool at improving your security, it isn’t infallible either and there are malware tools that are designed to gain administrator rights from within your system, so they may not be inheriting the lowered permissions of the application you ran with DropMyRights (stopping them get established is better than trying to dig them out afterwards).
We talk of a layered defence and a multi application approach to your security so IMHO, I feel you would be weakening that layered approach by disabling the web shield provider. Your system, your choice.
I too experience a top notch speed browsing web when using Linux, I’m testing Ubuntu & Kubuntu and will try another distros but from what I saw web pages in Ubuntu/Kubuntu loads instantly, including most complicated ones. I think this is a major flaw in Windows itself, not in avast! WS provider, because man, you have to browse the web a little under Linux and you’ll find yourself in a totally new world, I swear - and I’m not that kind or Linux techie guy, I’m doing just my first steps on it.
And to settle things down, I tell you that Linux is light-speed faster right out of the box, while I need a few tools in Windows to hack and tweak some settings and get the connection to it’s fully potential, read Tweaki… 4 power users, TuneUp2007 and cFosSpeed Pro (cable edition) 3.22 - all of them FOR PAY, while Linux remains free.
About WS provider, dear DavidR, as you well say “My system, my choice” and I will for now disable this module. Sure there may be some workaround to DropMyRights application, but will the WS provider be aware of this workarounds? I mean will it detect the malicious code? I find it very fuzzy…
The WS provider is indeed really useful to the most of people running Windows with Administrative rights (near %99,9 lol ;D) but not more for me.
I as you, prefer prevention rather than cure, but please! I have never experienced a single virus/spyware/malware of any kind incident since 1996 when I connected for first time and had the IE5 screwed by Lop.com - still hate those people.
As it’s said in lot of sites virus & general malware attack ar much fiction than reality, in some way because big vendors looking for new markets -and more dollars-, but still the menace is real and I think this is where such a great product like avast! fits.
Please note that I haven’t got any single incident for years because I allways runned some kind of protection… but now even firewalls became nasty.
By the way, my 600k connection under Windows gives me 60-70kb (sometimes more, don’t ask me I don’t know why) for download and 14-20 kb to upload under Win, so I think connection it’s squeezed to the last. Obviously, these values change from site to site and server to server but I had up to 75kb when downloading from some sites using a download manager (right now Orbit). Still Linux is way fast showing web pages - not cached ones.
Thanks a lot you both for your time, this forum is da bomb!!!
The web shield doesn’t care or know if you are running dropmyrights, or if it might be bypassed, it just gets on with its task of scanning http content (“I mean will it detect the malicious code? I find it very fuzzy…”) and if found detecting malicious content.
Mmmmmm…! I will surf some warez and underground sites to test browsing w/out WS provider. I promise to let you know about this experience even if I got infected 8)
Besides that, and for what I know, virus where those from DOS old-school times… Stoned (Your PC is stoned is a classic!), Ping, Jerusalem (aka Friday 13, remember it???) Mitchelangelo and so far… those were great times, virus where coded in plain assembly, no in VB and there were also some excellent solutions like Central Point Antivirus and Turbo Anti-Virus - the kings.
Yeah… I remember disassembling them (with Borland’s TurboAssembler) or just inserting a JMP point at the header of EXE or COM files to circumvect malicious code when antivirus can’t clean the files…
But hey, it was the time were Directories rules, not the ‘folders’, and Ralph Brown’s interrupt list was the nerd Bible lol :
and there were also some excellent solutions like Central Point Antivirus and Turbo Anti-Virus - the kings.