Avast! Antivir hogs bandwidth

[Barge]

Avast! Antivirus hogs bandwidth

Having recently moved from Virgin Mobile EDGE based internet to a 384kbs adsl line at home, I started downloading youtube videos with Orbit downloader. I could not understand why the download speeds were between 18 - 25 KB/s.

NetTrafficMeter showed that overall bandwidth speed of 38 - 40KB/s was going through the router. I searched for a tool to determine which programmes were using how much bandwidth. I settled for the freeware "NetLimiter 2 Monitor". It showed that Avast Web Scanner (Ashwebsv.exe) was constantly using 5 to 15KB/s (sometimes higher). To me this is a significant amount on an entry level ADSL line. People on a 1-4Mbps line probably wouldn't be bothered.

I tried Pausing the Web Scanner without success. I uninstalled Avast and installed Avira - I'd run away from Avira due to the inability to update on my previously slow connection. Avira updates fine now and my downloads are at full speed. I can't say whether Avast only does the bandwidth hogging when downloading videos or using Orbit, but I'm not prepared to sacrifice my data cap to find out.

 

[NomNom]

:erm: get a decent anti-virus..

 

[rsd]

Disable web scanning, use firefox and manually scan any files you download before executing them.

 

[Hummercellc]

AVG>>> free. Never had one day of Sh*t in my life with it. and never had a virus thanks to it..... I used norton's once, Now that is a ball of Cr*p

 

[rurapente]

Ive had avast for years, never saw anything like that.

 

[ryu]

:erm: get a decent anti-virus..

Avast is one of the best if not the best IMHO

 

[semiautomatix]

Avast is one of the best if not the best IMHO

Never had a problem in several years. Sometimes the ashwebsv.exe hogs the CPU but its just scanning pages before I open them. It's worth the effort, you don't want a virus.

And yes, one of the best AV I've ever used.

 

[rsifan]

Been using Avira for about a year now, no issues with it hogging bandwidth or anything like that! It does automatic updates, but that never caused any slow speeds with my browsing or downloads.

According to this it rates quite highly:

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/10782.html

 

[Barge]

Ive had avast for years, never saw anything like that.

I've liked and used Avast for more than a year. I'm just happy to have reclaimed some valuable bandwidth with Avira. I can't say for sure now, as I've uninstalled Avast, but I think it was just during those multi-part downloads that the Web Scanner was overactive. I did not notice in the past as I did not use my home PC for significant downloading, pre-adsl. At least NetLimiter could show me which progamme was guilty.

Been using Avira for about a year now, no issues with it hogging bandwidth ...
According to this it rates quite highly: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/10782.html

That article swung my opinion despite the reported extra false positives.