I have noticed that the loading/browsing speed is slower in Firefox.
And I tested with the most used norwegian speed test at http://speed.bredbandsguiden.no.
With Firefox (3, 11, 12, 13 and 14 versions) I get a download speed of 13 Mbps.
If I run the same test with IE8 I get 26 Mbps (much closer to my line speed).
On the Firefox newsgroup they asked me to try disabling things to lock down the source.
And when I disabled the “Web shield” in avast! I suddenly got full speed in Firefox too.
So the question is: Why a 10 Mbps speed drop in Firefox with Web-shield on - but not in IE8?
Does IE8 bypass the Web shield (that is BAD) or is avast optimized for IE8 (and why)?
What Windows version are you using? For me, there is no difference using either IE9 or Chrome in Win 7 64 bit but in XP Pro 32 bit, it’s a different story. With the Web shield on in XP, I get right at 6mbs speed at Speedtest.net with both IE8 and Chrome. If I turn the Web Shield off, IE8 stays at the 6mbs but Chrome jumps up to 18 which is the speed I get in Win7 at all times.
I just tested the download speed with avast7! AIS, Firefox 12 B5, W8-CP, It showed 5.77 MB vs my AT&T rated speed of 6.00 MB. I think I can live with that.