Web shield and newsgroup binary file problems

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’ve taken the advice here and am using 127.0.0.1 for the localhost as my proxy server name and 12080 as the port. since I found it impossible to run Zone Alarm and the web shield at the same time. Before that I either had to close the web shield, or turn off the Zone Alarm cookies and ad blocking while running it. The last choice was lousy as I got plenty of pop ups.

However, the problem I have is that if I try to download a binary file from the newsgroup server, the download takes 3-4x as long because of the web shield scanning delay. If I turn off the web shield (pausing seems to not work), the download speeds up, but then I can’t access the net because of the proxy server change, so I have to turn the web shield on again.

Any solutions, and is there any danger in using 127.0.0.1 as the proxy server? Is there anything that has to be changed in Zone Alarm and will I still have a firewall by playing around with the LAN settings?

2

A temporary solution is to use the customize feauture of the web scanner and under SCANNING, select the scan only these files feature, with no files listed.

After downloading, I’ll have to go back and change it each time, but at least it changes back to the normal download speed this way.

3

By the way, I’ve installed the internet mail shield patch and still have to uncheck NNTP scanning in internet mail for these downloads to resume at normal speed.

4

If you follow the instructions here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=10690.0 Can you make it work?
About ZA and avast, there is more information here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=11486.0

5

Ok, I removed my Lan setting localhost setting of port 12080 using and switched the web shield port as per these instructions:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=10690.0;id=2638;image

I now have no problem accessing the web, but my binary newsgroup downloads still hang unless I turn off the NNTP scans in the Internet Mail shield.

6

Look to the log file Avast4\DATA\log\aswMaiSv.log, if there is the string “error”.

7

I don’t see a string error, and I still have to uncheck the NNTP scanning in the Internet mail shield in order to get any kind of download speed using my news server and avoid long delays.

Perhaps there’s a port setting to use in the newsgroup program that’ s favorably compatible with Avast’s shields?

Btw, per your suggestions, how does changing the port settings affect Firewall security?

8

Maybe your have to change the value for Log into [MailScanner] section of the avast4.ini file to:
Log=20

Maybe booting…

I think it will ‘ask’ for connection in the new port and nothing more. No security problem.

9

I checked the ini file and there wasn’t even a line in there for log setting, so I entered one, but it didn’t help. :frowning:

The only thing that seems to work is to uncheck NNTP scanning in the internet mail shield. The scanning ability is a great feature. The problem is if a file has more than a few parts. The scanner creates a 5 second delay after downloading each part.