hi…i use Avast home edition. I also have ZoneAlarm firewall installed in my system. sometimes while browsing my webpages don’t load well. I have to try refreshing them for 4 to 5 times before the pages are completely loaded. Is this because of the compatibility issue between avast and zonealarm? also, how good is avast’s web shield in protecting my computer. do i need to use a firewall along with avast?
i use windows xp…service pack 2 installed.
You don’t mention which version of ZA you have or if it is Free or Pro ?
The free version has no issues with avast, it is only the privacy feature in the Pro version when set to High that it conflicts with avast’s web shield. It also depends on what you answered when you got the compatibility question Yes or No ?
http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html
If you are using ZoneAlarm Free you should click NO, because privacy features are not present in ZoneAlarm Free this will not turn off web shield transparent mode proxy.
Use a text editor and edit the avast4.ini file, the default installation location is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini (I would advise you copy avast4.ini before editing it, just in case).
If you answered incorrectly, Locate the line containing ZoneAlarmCompatibility= and delete that line (avast will ask again, answer NO) or change the value to =0. Save the edited avast4.ini file.
If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro and Privacy Control in ZoneAlarm is set to High and if you click YES in avast compatibility dialogue box the transparent mode proxy in web shield will be turned off you have to manually configure browser to access internet. To manually configure your browser watch instructional video
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE
For IE - dialup users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (Dial-up)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox
However, what you are describing doesn’t sound like a compatibility issue at all, and if ashWebSv.exe (the web shield scanner) were blocked by ZA then it wouldn’t work period, rather than intermittently or after many page refresh attempts. It may simply be taking a while for the page to load if it were graphics orientated.
Are there any specific pages this happens for or is it for any page ?
Have you tried pausing or terminating the web shield to see what happens ?
I use ZoneAlarm free version. While installing Avast I did get an pop-up window specifying that there might be compatibility issues with ZoneAlarm due to which some features of web shield will be disabled. I had clicked on Yes for that. After turning off ZoneAlarm all my pages tend to load faster than usual.
But with ZoneAlarm running, the same problem continues and its common for all web pages including Gmail, Yahoo, etc.
If you are using ZoneAlarm Free you should click NO, because privacy features are not present in ZoneAlarm Free this will not turn off webshield transparent mode proxy.
Use a text editor and edit the avast4.ini file, the default installation location is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini (I would advise you copy avast4.ini before editing it, just in case). Locate the line containing ZoneAlarmCompatibility= and delete that line or, if you want to keep this line, set it to 0. Save the edited avast4.ini file.
More info> http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15960#msg15960
If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro and Privacy Control in ZoneAlarm is set to High and if you click YES in avast comptability dialog box the transparent mode proxy in webshield will be turned off you have to manually configure browser to access internet. To manually configure your browser watch instructional video. In this case, the value ZoneAlarmCompatibility=1 should be at avast4.ini file.