Web shield....

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

A bit of history. Since web shield came out, yet at the time i did not reconize corrorolation I was getting errors.

Errors such as firefox crashes, web being shut off etc. I never assumed it to be avast shield at all, till the otehr day i started to adjust settings. For instance, logging into my Miva shopping cart system, firefox would simply crash. Not time to try to get back in, the web was disconnected along with the no connecton found in bottom of screen.

So, on that note… Not allowing avast to load up, the errors didnt happen again.

Re engaging avast, they did again.

So, I tried just yesterday to check the silent mode. Today, and this was the last thing done to system, I began to get computer freezes and last time the blue screen of death stating about a driver. i wish I recorded those numbers now, yet unfortunetly i didnt.

Nexy boot up, same thing, total lock up, computer rebooted on own.

Next time I rebooted, I quickly, assuming web shield and the silent check i did was the cause, disabled the entire web shield and terminated it.

Things noticed. Crash that happened 3 times in a row, now stopped. Web sites loading in a blink of an eye, vs the slower when shield on. It appeared the problems based on the feel of the internet and my miva shopping cart page not crashing , that this is ineed the problem.

I wish I had logs to show this in further detail. Yet with instant computer shut downs I show no logs.

As of this writing Webshield is terminated and all problems associated wit the last few weeks are now gone. Just a heads up that in my opinion there are some bugs in the shield.

For specs.

Windown XP home sp2 (fresh install, never any other av proggies instaled)
2.8HT 1.2 Gig of ram

if you would like me to try any tests let me know. Im a huge avast fan and im willing to help solve this problem anyway I can

Regards,

Dan

2

I too have gotten crappy service from the new Web Shield.

Below is a GIF of my download meter while downloading NNTP news using Newsbin Pro 4.33B6. The left half is downloading through Web Shield. And the right half is with Web Shield disabled and ended the task. As you can see, I get a far better download with Web Shield disabled. So I leave it disabled.

Also looking at the Task Manager I noticed the WS task was taking 20%-30% of my CPU every second.

I’ll just have to rely on Standard Shield to pickup anything bad I try to run.

3

Ok, but you have less protection…
You must choose and believe in the source of where you’re downloading.

Ok, it’s up to you… You’re protected if you set the sensitivity to High level.
The CPU usage seems normal for a scanning process.

4

To further explain the above. My brotehr just now emailed me and told me the same thing, upon terminating the web shield, he no longer has firefox or comp crashes.

Web sites load without errors now…

I told him what was happenign to me, he was experiencing same results. When mentioned what i thought was the problem, he then did same and all was fine.

Im now a few hours after the termination and have had no further errors on anything I had previously.

5

Datagg, ok, you’re experiencing trouble with WebShield, others too…
The solution is trying to post as many information related as you can.
WebShield is a very good feature just to be disable at the first problems.
I have mine with it but Lukas helped me a lot to configure a local web proxy.
Now, happy and safe 8)

6

Which I did. Just mentioning that it happened on another computer is further verifying a problem.

This was my intention & not to stir up trouble.

Last ill speak of it

7

Datagg,
if webshield crashes it creates a file unpXXXXX.mdmp in c:\program files\alwil software\avast4\data\log. Please send me a couple of these.

If your Windows crashes to BSOD, it will also create a minidump. It should be find in C:\Windows\Minidump. Please send some created by the latest version.

With the info we can guess more.
Thanks.

Lukas.

8

Hi,

I made some speed tests in the morning. I am not saying these are rigorous speed tests, just downloaded one large file (setupengpro.exe) from asw.cz and downloaded 10x times the homepage of microsoft.com a measured the time it took with WebShield on and off.

I used wget.exe to download. So, for the new version it must be entered into the avast4.ini to be processed by WebShield. As follows:
[WebScanner]
OptIn=wget.exe

For time measurement I used timethis.exe from resource kit.

My home connection is UPC Chello and should be around 1,5 mbit.

  1. Firstly, let’s download setupengpro.exe

time with WebShield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.672
time without WebShield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.823

Well, it’s slower without WebShield. But that does not absolutely mean WebShield makes your connection faster. It’s just a fluctuation in the network speed, so I redownloaded with a without again.

time with WebShield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.542
time without WebShield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.162

  1. As a second test I tried to download more files in a row. www.microsoft.com seems to be a good candidate. It’s not a big homepage, but my download consists of 21 files and about 89 Kb. I took it 10x times in a row to neglect the measuring error.

This is the script I used for this:
test.cmd
@echo off rmdir /s /q www.microsoft.com >nul for /L %%i in (1,1,10) do ( echo Try: %%i wget -q --page-requisites www.microsoft.com rmdir /s /q www.microsoft.com )

With webshield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:08.999 = 1,15 min
Without webshield: TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:07.577 = 1,13 min

Slowdown: 1,15 - 1.13 = 0.02, 0.02 / 1.13 = 1,7 %

My command lines follow:

`
E:\Desktop>timethis wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Command Line : wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:01:50 2005

–10:01:50-- http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe
=> setupengpro.exe.2' Resolving files.avast.com... 67.19.185.82, 69.56.132.146, 69.93.98.186, ... Connecting to files.avast.com[67.19.185.82]:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Location: http://download2.avast.com//iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe [following] --10:01:50-- http://download2.avast.com//iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe => setupengpro.exe.2’
Resolving download2.avast.com… 66.98.252.36
Connecting to download2.avast.com[66.98.252.36]:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 9,461,712 [application/octet-stream]

100%[====================================>] 9,461,712 171.55K/s ETA 00:00

10:02:54 (145.00 KB/s) - `setupengpro.exe.2’ saved [9461712/9461712]

TimeThis : Command Line : wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:01:50 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 10:02:54 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.542

E:\Desktop>timethis wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Command Line : wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:02:58 2005

–10:02:59-- http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe
=> setupengpro.exe.3' Resolving files.avast.com... 67.19.185.82, 69.56.132.146, 69.93.98.186, ... Connecting to files.avast.com[67.19.185.82]:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Location: http://download17.avast.com//iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe [following] --10:02:59-- http://download17.avast.com//iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe => setupengpro.exe.3’
Resolving download17.avast.com… 67.19.216.186
Connecting to download17.avast.com[67.19.216.186]:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 9,461,712 [application/octet-stream]

100%[====================================>] 9,461,712 147.20K/s ETA 00:00

10:04:03 (145.74 KB/s) - `setupengpro.exe.3’ saved [9461712/9461712]

TimeThis : Command Line : wget http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupengpro.exe

TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:02:58 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 10:04:03 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:04.162
`

and

`
E:\Desktop>timethis test

TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 09:45:45 2005

Try: 1
Try: 2
Try: 3
Try: 4
Try: 5
Try: 6
Try: 7
Try: 8
Try: 9
Try: 10

TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 09:45:45 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 09:46:52 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:07.577

E:\Desktop>timethis test

TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 09:48:01 2005

The system cannot find the file specified.
Try: 1
Try: 2
Try: 3
Try: 4
Try: 5
Try: 6
Try: 7
Try: 8
Try: 9
Try: 10

TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 09:48:01 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 09:49:10 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:08.999
`

Hope you’ll find this interresting.
Lukas.

9

And a last note to the frequently discussed ZoneAlarm’s privacy features:

the same test with privacy features (Cookie Control and Ad Blocker) set to High and disabled. Both times WebShield is off.

Privacy set to HIGH:
TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:33:29 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 10:35:28 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:58.910

Privacy set to disabled:
TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:35:38 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 10:36:56 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:18.152

ZoneAlarm disabled alltogether:
TimeThis : Command Line : test
TimeThis : Start Time : Tue Mar 15 10:39:23 2005
TimeThis : End Time : Tue Mar 15 10:40:31 2005
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:01:07.877

10

I used to get far better performance from Avast before this new Web Shield update came a while back. My CPU usage wasn’t as high as it is now, and my downloads always looked like the good right half of my previous posted GIF (full bandwidth). And my Web Shield was at a Normal setting. I’d hate to see how it would chop my bandwidth if I use the High setting.

Anyway, is there a way for the Avast team to optimize Web Shield a little more to alleviate the CPU usage while you’re downloading files? What good is a new feature if it reduces performance of something else.

11

Setting webshield to high or normal has no effect right now. It does not affects performance nor does it anything else. Sorry to admit.

Skram0, are you suggesting, that performance was higher in the version 4.6.603 than now in 4.6.623? When you download on a fast network webshield has to scan your data and that takes some CPU cycles. We are constantly optimizing the scanning but I am not aware of any relevant changes in the scanning engine since the 4.6.603 version.

Also, in your original post you are stating the the graph were taken during NNTP news downloading - isn’t NNTP supposed to use NNTP protocol and that is handled by Internet Mail Provider and not WebShield. Or do you use some web based client?

Thanks.
Lukas.

12

Skram0, about the Newsbin slowdown… is it really so much slower or is it just what the speed indicator says? Because the speed indicator values can get skewed with avast NNTP scanning enabled. Please see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=11981.0 for more info…

Thanks
Vlk

13

Datagg, you should definitely send us the minidumps. They should be in the \windows\minidump folder, as Lukor explained above. There should be 1 minidump per each system crash (or sudden reboot).

Thanks
Vlk

14

crap. sorry about that. I’ll start a new thread dealing with the Internet Mail provider.

15

I too have noticed some issues with the web service. om not clear on the downloading speed issues i have yet to notice that. however twice in the last couple opf days my CPU has spiked to 100%. usually when i have closed out of a browser that was not loading. mybe that is speed issue related? anyhow, i had to stop the process from running in order to get to quit.

  1. will i get screwed if it is not working?
  2. Is there any way to to get to settle down oafter it spikes without stoping the prcess?
    Thanks for any help.
16

Yep, I’ve just noticed a problem with WebShield tonight also.

Using Firefox 1.0.1, it’s good for a few pages, then all web access freezes. Once it’s frozen in Firefox, can’t do anything in IE either. E-mail is OK though. Looking in my firewall (Outpost 2.5), I can see that there are several connections open for ashWebSv, one for each page that I had been trying to load since the freeze. All of them are going nowhere. No traffic reported. ashWebSv is not being blocked, it’s just not communicating.

So, disable the WebShield provider, kill off the ashWebSv.exe process and, voila, can browse again.

Any ideas, Alwil?

17

Did you try patching WebShield?
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=12015.msg101725#msg101725

18

Just tried it. No good. Froze after 4 pages. Stop WebSheild, kill ashWebSv.exe and everything’s OK again.

I know it patched OK, because Process Guard alerted me to the changed checksum.

Sorry, no joy. Any more ideas?

19

I found 2 in there…I hope they tell ya something. Ive had no more problems since shield was shut down.

EDIT…Tried to send, error came up- Mini031405-01.dmp.
You cannot upload that type of file. The only allowed extensions are txt,jpg,gif,png,log.

Can I convert them to something that still can be read… ??

20

You can send them to my email or upload to our anonymous ftp server ftp://www2.asw.cz/incoming

Lukas.