I have to disable uTorrent as a web browser under HTTP Web Access Protection in the NOD32 setup, otherwise my browsing with Firefox slows to a non-existent crawl. Why is that? Is it safe to set it up this way?
I haven't experienced the same thing with the same setup. However, you don't need NOD32 to scan µTorrent that way, since all NOD32 do when it comes to scanning, is scanning the tracker address (and this address is safe). The real-time scanner will take care of the rest. So, it is safe to disable http-scanning for µTorrent, and more importantly; it will resolve the issue for you.
Shadek, so you are saying that the only HTTP scanning that is done is when accessing the tracker address? I thought HTTP scanning would also be used and recommended for scanning the actual download of the torrent (mp3 or avi or rar for example) and that real time scanning was only for accessing files off the hard disk.
No, as soon as a 'block' is written onto the harddrive, the real time scanner with scan it. Http scanner won't scan the data written onto the harddrive nor will it scan the 'read' data that you upload.
True, but my understanding is that it will scan the data as it's transferred over the Internet from the torrent seeder(s) to your PC and before it gets to the hard drive. I thought that was a good additional layer of protection to have. There is another related thread and it states that the web access protection in NOD32 gets bogged down by the multitude of connections that a torrent download creates. Hope they fix that.
No, the http-scanner will not scan the files before it gets to your harddrive, sadly. It'll only scan anything related to the htt-protocol.
Shadek, according to the user manual: ESET NOD32 Antivirus also contains the Web browsers feature, which allows the user to define whether the given application is a browser or not. If an application is marked as a browser by the user, all communication from this application is monitored regardless of the port numbers involved in the communication. The Web browsers feature complements the HTTP checking feature, as HTTP checking only takes place on predefined ports. However, many Internet services utilize dynamically changing or unknown port numbers. To account for this, the Web browser feature can establish control of port communications regardless of the connection parameters. So, NOD32 would check the data coming down the line, however I can't leave uTorrent checked as a web browser without my normal Internet browsing slowing to a crawl until a reboot.
Skunky, this wasn't a problem with IMON in version 2 so I assume the proxy component of version 3 cannot handle the multitude of torrent connections properly.
So the OT's post fixes this issue? Seems to work for me. Why do we have to do this to prevent Firefox or other browsers from slowing to a crawl?
add µTorrent.exe to exclude list NOD32 will still scan files that are incoming so you might want to exclude your µtorrent temp folder and only scan the complete folder
Is it possible this is a Vista SP1 issue? I only recently upgraded to SP1 and don't remember having this problem with uTorrent and 3.0.642 before that. Also could just be that there were many seeders for my most recent download which pushed NOD's proxy over the limit. Either way, it's not working properly, and no application should have to be excluded as a web browser.