Disable Webguard Avira?

Since disabling Avira's webguard (Avira Antivir Premium), I notice browsing is remarkably faster. Because I have an 6 years old computer, Pentium 4, every speedup is welcome.

My other resident scanner is Prevx 3. Do you think disabling Avira's webguard, combined with the heuristics of Prevx 3 is a safe practice?

Thanks for any reactions.

 

I don't know anything about Prevx 3, I have disabled the web guard as IMO it isn't really necessary, but I'm running most of the time virtual. Avira has excellent heuristics with or without the web guard.

 

Believe it or not, I think it's probably Prevx 3 that's slowing you down, and not Avira. I would remove Prevx altogether, and use Avira with the web guard. I run the web guard here and it is extremely light with virtually no impact, it's so much better than all the others. From what I remember, Prevx took a toll on performance.

 

I have also disabled the webguard, mostly because I find it as redundant coverage...but also due to some slow down. You will not experience any reduction in security, if that is a concern.

 

When i setup avira premium i do not install mailguard or webguard.

 

If Webguards are not needed, then why do Anti-virus companies include them

 

To twist with users' minds.

 

My Oldest computer is 3.4 GHz Hyperthreding Pentium 4. It has webguard enabled on a 10meg connection. I notice a very very very slight slowdown and none when downloading files. You may have a seting in your computer out of place or a conflict in programing somewhere.

 

As I understand it, they are meant (web scanners) to keep the nasties off the HD completely by stopping them in the http stream first, and 2nd, they are meant to prevent any potential web based exploits where something might execute directly in browser memory via a browser vulnerability.

 

That's where things like LinkScanner and Rising PC Doctor come in.

Whatever method suits you best.

 

LinkScanner is a horrible way of doing it they put alot of extra load on web servers, run up bandwidth costs and can cause major problems for webmasters. I really dont recommend those to anyone.

 

An efficient web scanner seems to be the easiest and best way to me... But if you prefer 2 or 3 more apps, then as you say, whatever suits you.

 

I have a new computer (1.8 Ghz but quad-core with 4 GB memory) and get a slow-down on many sites with WebGuard. If you have a high speed connection and other security, I would disable it.

 

When you say you get a slow-down, do you mean a slight delay before a page dumps on the screen, or do you mean an apparent overall slower browsing experience? In some web scanners (Avast for instance) I can see a slight "delay" before the page dumps, but not anything else... and in Avira, I don't even see that. It seems really good for me here in 7 x64 using IE8.

 

Thanks all for your replies. Kerodo, I uninstalled Prevx to see if that would be the problem. I'd say that removing Prevx on my computer has the same effect at speeding up browsing (and using outlook) as disabling webguard in Avira.

Is using Avira as resident scanner, with webguard activated for peace of mind, enough as the only resident protection? Or is it wiser to use the combo of an AV and something like Prevx, which is a kind of behaviour blocker/ HIPS?

 

Glad that helped Dutchie.... Whether or not you need more than just Avira with the web guard is pretty much up to you I think. Avira alone is pretty good protection. That's all I use. But I am pretty safe on the internet thru the years. Just remember, the more apps you add, the more chances for conflicts and performance hits. There is a distinct trade-off...

 

Funny, I get no page load delay with Avast, but do with Avira. It's enough of a load delay that it bothers me and IS a slower browsing experience. I have WebGuard installed at the moment, but might take it off again.

 

Yep, it bothers me too, unless it's very very slight. That's why I prefer Avira now over Avast, sounds like I have the exact opposite experience of yours! Interesting.... Guess it just depends on a lot of other circumstances that all add up to each individual experience..

 

I've thought about it and I will use the combo of Prevx and Avira, with webguard and mailguard disabled.On my system they seem not to bite each other. For easy surfing I'll use Opera 10 (faster as Firefox), and for dangerous surfing Firefox with WOT add-on and Sandboxie. Thanks again.

 

No worries, as long as it doesn't slow down a thing.

 

Hi there,

May I suggest you NOT to disable the “Web Guard” [a.k.a. “HTTP SCANNER”] of your Anti-Virus application?

I run a different A/V but it does include HTTP SCANNER [it is ESET NOD32] and, I can say it has saved my day in countless occasions when inadvertently I have browsed an infected web page which silently tries to install a DRIVE-BY-DOWNLOAD onto my computer.

The more terrible naties out there are not just the Trojan Horses or Macro Viruses but the SCRIPT MALWARE which might be embedded on many web pages many of us visit.
If you check the latest report by AV-Comparatives you will notice that the AVs that fare better against SCRIPT MALWARE are the ones that have an HTTP SCANNER built in.

Examples:

Avira: 98.9%
Avast!: 98.2%
Kaspersky: 94.9%
ESET NOD32: 96.5% to mention a few. (NOTE: these numbers are what they scored against Script Malware ONLY).

However, just check up all the other A/Vs that don't have that component built in. How do they fare against Script Malware?

Thus, my point is that HTTP SCANNER (or Web Guard like others call it) is a necessary component on A/Vs. My hope is that all A/V companies can include it on their scanners some day.

Best regards,

Carlos

 

What works well on your machine may not work so well on mine.
I've been using Avira Premium for a few years and have finally removed it.
Prior to removing it I was using it in conjunction with Prevx Edge, which is now Prevx 3.0.
The slow downs I experienced were from Avira.
I still use XP Pro as my main OS and have W7 installed too.
I use Prevx, Avast and DW on W7 with no problems.
However I don't feel a need to have others do it my way.
To each his own.
Enjoy the day.
Hugger

 

That isn't true any more

 

How so.... Linkscanners STILL scan every link on the page they may not go as DEEP as they used to but they do still scan the next page, and it still creates havoc for webmasters / Server hosts. To the point they are hated with a passion.

 

My advice is to NOT disable the webguard and keep to a minimum the number of security apps installed on your system. Remember, less is more