Using Avast! Free 5.0.418 with up to date defs. Internet speed is half what it used to be. If I turn off the Web Shield my speed returns. When I first installed Avast! I used 5.0.377 and I had no problems with network speed. Only noticed this issue about a 7 to 10 days ago.
Web shield ON = Half normal network speed.
Web Shield OFF = Everything returns to normal speed.
What can be done to lessen the impact on network speed? I’m pretty open for suggestions.
Thanks
My System Specs
AMD Athlon 1.2
1 Gig DDR RAM
Windows XP Pro SP3
Roadrunner Broadband
Not sure when you refer to network speed if you are talking about local access or transfer performance between two PC’s on the LAN, or whether you are talking of Internet performance of one or more PC’s on the network. Also not sure how you are measuring this.
That said, and on the basis that you say turning the Web shield off remedies the problem, I suggest you try to narrow it down a bit. Start with leaving the Webshield ON, and the “Scan web (HTTP) traffic” ON, and the “Enable Web scanning” ON, but remove the tick from “Use intelligent stream scanning”
If that doesn’t improve the situation, then try also removing the tick from “Enable Web Scanning” (Note that at this stage the shield will then only be using URL blocking).
The only Internet problem I have with Avast 5 .. Is exactly the same one I had with Avast 4.8 ::)
And That Is...
The little Internet Globe Icon in my Taskbar has a tendency to vanish when using Avast ( 5 - or - 4.8 ) :'(
Opening a Browser or Webpage brings my Internet straight back again ???
Very Annoying! >:(
However! - Thank God! .. My surfing speeds are not in anyway affected by this 8)
Broadband … Up To 8Mbps
My surfing / browsing speed seem absolutely fine
However!
I haven’t been able to test my actual Speed yet.
Coz…
My son is off school at the moment - & - Constantly on… PC - XBox - PS3
So my speeds would be very unlikely to be accurate anyway.
I’ll Test My Speed! … As soon as my son is back at school ;D
Is WebShield still on default settings or have you modified them? Under Sensitivity, setting “Test whole files” can slow down internet access especially on large files.
Did you post with anything in mind, or just as a “me too”.
I’m assuming if you have the same problem as the OP you have read the other posts in this thread, so what is your response to
Also when posting with a problem, it alway helps if you specify the basic PC details, CPU type, speed, Memory size, operating system, Service packs and other Malware & firewall software installed.
Not sure when you refer to network speed if you are talking about local access or transfer performance between two PC's on the LAN, or whether you are talking of Internet performance of one or more PC's on the network. Also not sure how you are measuring this.
That said, and on the basis that you say turning the Web shield off remedies the problem, I suggest you try to narrow it down a bit. Start with leaving the Webshield ON, and the “Scan web (HTTP) traffic” ON, and the “Enable Web scanning” ON, but remove the tick from “Use intelligent stream scanning”
If that doesn’t improve the situation, then try also removing the tick from “Enable Web Scanning” (Note that at this stage the shield will then only be using URL blocking).
I have been measuring the download and upload speed with the Speakeasy site.
When I say that my speed has declined I am referring to the measurements that I am getting on Speakeasy. I also ran NetStat Live from AnalogX and it seems to match closely the results on Speakeasy.
I have tried different combination’s of enabling and disabling different shields to see if something else is causing the slowdown. The only thing that seems to directly impact the speed is the Web Shield option, even when using the default settings.
I am using Comodo free firewall. I have tried disabling this to see if it had any impact but it didn’t change anything. Currently there are no other security software programs running on this machine.
Same for me. Indeed the internet speed is slower by about 40-50% with high speed. Since modern day time we all use high speed, ALWIL should look at this big problem. For myself I switched back to AVIRA CLASSIC PERSONAL (NO WEB SHIELD). I would like the web shield protection but it shouldn’t affect the overall speed of my connection. Reason for that:I pay for the speed
So what happened specifically when you tried varying the settings for the web shield as suggested in my previous post, namely:
[Quote] I suggest you try to narrow it down a bit. Start with leaving the Webshield ON, and the “Scan web (HTTP) traffic” ON, and the “Enable Web scanning” ON, but remove the tick from “Use intelligent stream scanning”. If that doesn’t improve the situation, then try also removing the tick from “Enable Web Scanning” (Note that at this stage the shield will then only be using URL blocking).
[Unquote]
Also you have still not supplied any details about the PC as asked.
gdiloren,
[Quote]
… I would like the web shield protection but it shouldn’t affect the overall speed of my connection.
[Unquote]
There is no such thing as a free meal - live protection from a Web shield involves extra processing of data in realtime, and it will have an effect on performance. It is a case of whether the reduction is excessive, and for many users it quite plainly isn’t. You too could try to narrow it down a bit by trying what I suggested to Cannonman rather than simply writing off the whole Webshield.
Out of interest, why did you change to Avira with no web shield when you could have simply turned off, or even completely uninstalled the Web shield in Avast!?
So what happened specifically when you tried varying the settings for the web shield as suggested in my previous post, namely:
Quote
I suggest you try to narrow it down a bit. Start with leaving the Webshield ON, and the “Scan web (HTTP) traffic” ON, and the “Enable Web scanning” ON, but remove the tick from “Use intelligent stream scanning”. If that doesn’t improve the situation, then try also removing the tick from “Enable Web Scanning” (Note that at this stage the shield will then only be using URL blocking).
[Unquote]
Also you have still not supplied any details about the PC as asked.
gdiloren,
I have gone through the steps you suggested. The only change that I could see was turning off “Scan web (HTTP) traffic” seemed to help some but very little. Turning of “Use intelligent stream scanning” didn’t seem to change anything. It seems that no matter what combination of options I try I see very little difference. All combination’s result in approximately half the normal speed. The only way that I can get my normal speeds are by turning off the Web Shields which I feel is not an option. Results are the same using IE or Firefox.
PC Details
AMD Athlon 1.2Ghz
1Gig DDR RAM
Windows XP Pro SP3
Comodo Firewall (disabling this does nothing to improve speeds btw)
avast! free AV 5.0.418
First, what shields do you have running - If you have the behavour shield running try (a) turning it Off and (b) uninstalling it. I have uninstalled it on two of my PC’s, and for about 95% of the time, my internet performance using either IE7 or Firefox and with the web shield on and using the default values is quite good. In fact there is almost no significant difference when the web shield is turned off and speed tests are carried out.
For the other 5% of the time, and at this stage virtually at random during normal browsing, internet speed with either IE7 or Firefox becomes really slow, and it doesn’t seem to be on any particular site. If anything Firefox seems to be affected more than IE7. Access to the same site at the same time from another computer running Avast 4.8 via a common router is quite normal.
Restarting the browser doesn’t seem to help. When this problem occurs turning off the Web shield completely does appear to overcome the problem, and turning it back on most often brings the problem back (although some times restarting the web shield cuts off access to the internet altogether and then requires a reboot). In any event a reboot without changing the shields also seems to remove the problem.
At this stage it appears that in my case turning off “use intelligent stream scanning” reduces the extent of the problem, however because the system can work for 95% of the time with no significant impact on performance, the problem is not going to be easy to find. (I may be on the wrong track altogether but I wish I could see what is happening to packet retry level when the problem is present)
One thing that you might look at - the web shield is processing data in realtime, and there might be some clash or interaction if you have other software also providing real time protection.
I have Avast Free on XP Home SP-3. I only run with a Router, Win-Firewall, Iron Browser. I notice a significant drop in download speed and the only cure I have found is turning off the Avast Web Shield. The problem is in the Web Shield and not a problem–Over There…
;D putting check point at the road increase traffic. let the criminals in and, imprison in the chest so traffic flow fast don’t be afraid avast is good police they will catch them. and you will be the judge either you will kill them or imprison at the chest fore ever ;D just a point of view :-*
Hi Yezinki, some users are under the assumption, that if they don’t have a certain problem on their machine, than the problem Must be in the “complainers” setup, firewall-conflict, etc…I see this on different pc-security type forums. Sometimes this is the case, but not in all cases. I don’t know if it’s a Fanboy type of syndrome or what. Slight rant, but needed to be said…
Try un-installing Comodo as its device drivers are still active even though you disable the firewall.
OK, I uninstalled the Comodo firewall and rebooted. Speeds are still slow.
Try downloading a large file like setup_av_free.exe:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus
Results from downloading suggested file twice:
Web Shields OFF = 32 seconds
Web Shields ON = 67 seconds
Canonman,
First, what shields do you have running - If you have the behavour shield running try (a) turning it Off and (b) uninstalling it. I have uninstalled it on two of my PC’s, and for about 95% of the time, my internet performance using either IE7 or Firefox and with the web shield on and using the default values is quite good. In fact there is almost no significant difference when the web shield is turned off and speed tests are carried out.
For the other 5% of the time, and at this stage virtually at random during normal browsing, internet speed with either IE7 or Firefox becomes really slow, and it doesn’t seem to be on any particular site. If anything Firefox seems to be affected more than IE7. Access to the same site at the same time from another computer running Avast 4.8 via a common router is quite normal.
Restarting the browser doesn’t seem to help. When this problem occurs turning off the Web shield completely does appear to overcome the problem, and turning it back on most often brings the problem back (although some times restarting the web shield cuts off access to the internet altogether and then requires a reboot). In any event a reboot without changing the shields also seems to remove the problem.
At this stage it appears that in my case turning off “use intelligent stream scanning” reduces the extent of the problem, however because the system can work for 95% of the time with no significant impact on performance, the problem is not going to be easy to find. (I may be on the wrong track altogether but I wish I could see what is happening to packet retry level when the problem is present)
One thing that you might look at - the web shield is processing data in realtime, and there might be some clash or interaction if you have other software also providing real time protection.
Sorry I can’t be of more help.
Turning of Behavior Shield doesn’t appear to change anything at all.
For those of you having similar issues, would you mind sharing your PC specs to see if there are any common hardware matches?
I’m grasping at straws at this point.
