Puzzling Problem

My setup is as follows:

Winxp SP3 with ALL updates as of 9/27/10
Nod32 AntiVirus Version 4.2.64.12
Firefox Version 3.6.10

Something is slowing down Firefox and it seems to be Nod32 is taking some time
during the end of downloads to scan some files. I have searched the Mozilla Firefox forums for an answer and found many references to versions prior my updates but could not find anything. Is there a setting in Nod32 or Firefox to eliminate this delay. Tia.

Dave

 

Hello davsan,

What are the sizes of your downloads, are they larger files being downloaded?

Thank you,
Richard

 

Review your installed Firefox add-ons to ensure none are interfering.

 

did you try to disable the automatic virus check in Firefox

 

A few of the files are quite large (100mb) or so when downloading from Microsoft. I expect those to be slow even with a cable modem but even routine updates seem slower than normal.

 

The only addons I use are Adblock Plus, NoScript, and No New Tab Button.

The About.Config key for Download.ScanWhen Done is already set to False.

Guess I will have to live with it until a later update or whatever. Thank you all for your help.

davsan

 

AdBlock Plus and Noscript are no two Firefox utilities to be downplayed, they are powerful and can affect how your PC and anti-virus work.

 

Thank you, I have removed NoSript completely and will try disabling or removing AdBlock Plus. I appreciate your reply. Bon jour!

 

Glad to have been of assistance, let us know how things develop.

 

I have removed ALL add-ons and the slowdown still exists at times which vary.
Somehow IE8 was slipped into my computer without my knowledge and another security update along with it. WinXp Sp3 now seems to behave like more like Vista with more restrictive security policies. I have a lot of sensitive data so I can't complain about maximum security being enforced. Perhaps, it is the price to pay for complete protection, if there is any such thing. I am getting a laptop with Windows 7 anyway, so I had better get used to it and go with the flow.

Thanks for all the help.

 

You can try setting a size limit for scanning files in the web and real-time protection setup. Remember that whenever an archive is downloaded each file from the archive must be extracted and scanned which may be a time consuming operation. The default settings have no limit set as this ensures that every single file you download is scanned and thus the chance for malware slipping in large archives is minimized.

 

Thanks Marcos, I hadn't thought of that. Will give it a try. It certainly looks to be the right solution.

 

Restricting the scans to smaller files worked just fine, Thanks Marcos. Everything is back to what I consider normal. Version 4 is a very good upgrade from older versions.