Question about avast! Network Shield

I've been using avast! Home (free) for about 18 months and since they introduced the Web and Network shields I've kept them disabled and not bother using them.
However, I've read a few articles on the Network Shield where it is described as an Intrusion Detection System.
I would just like peoples opinions on how well it does it's job and what it would actually protect me from and how well it compares to other so called IDS programs.

 

avast! Network Shield works as very precise firewall which targets very specific TCP packets (you still need real firewall along it!). Thats why it doesn't have any impact on internet connection.
I have seen it in action and it really worked. It intercepts malicious packets and rejects them. Network shield is designed to block MSBlast and Sasser like malware. Thats why it has IDS name,but it's not like PrevX or McAfee VSE8.0i IDS mechanism (generic rules).

avast! Web Shield is a HTTP scanning module thats checks all data before it's transmitted to browser. So anything you download or view is checked by Web Shield before it even enters browser. Plus Web Shield checks inside archives too (Standard Shield doesn't do that). But in general it's very similar to NOD32 IMON HTTP Scanner.

I strongly recommend that you enable these two providers. Network Shield is unnoticeable anyway with no performance impact. Web Shield shouldn't cause any problems except maybe a bit slower browsing (with slower i mean few miliseconds delay for pages with hundreds of elements to render in browser).
Basically you won't notice the difference.

 

Technically speaking, Network Shield IS an IDS. I'm talking IDS in the classic sense of the word (like Snort, for example).

Its database is confined to Intrernet worms, though. Currently, it counts couple of tens of signatures.


Cheers
Vlk

 

Thanks for the responses, I now have both enabled.
With the Web Shield, when I go to a site and start scrolling the mouse wheel straight away, some sites flicker and flash a little but other than that tiny issue I'm not noticing any slowdown or anything.

 

That "flash" is a delay between downloading data and actually rendering it in browser.