Secunia online scan - now taking very long with FF3 & IE7?

Hi,

The online "thorough" scan used to take 2-3 minutes before, when I had FF2 & XP SP2. Now with FF3 & XP SP3, even after 30mins it wasn't done yet. All the while my AV's realtime guard was disabled.

I tried with FF3 safe mode & IE7 too, and the scans went past 10mins (I stopped the scans). But with Opera 9.51, the same "thorough" scan finished at 2min 38sec - that's abt the same as last time.

Can someone verify if it's taking longer now on ur system? Or maybe a quirk just on my system?

THANKS.

 

Just did a thorough scan on vista IE7,completed 5 minutes 21 seconds.

 

djohn, thanks for the feedback. Quick question, are u using JRE 6 update 7 too?

Thanks in adv.

 

you r welcome and yes I am.

 

So no other XP SP3 users experiencing this?

Does bugs me abit that I've this slight "problem". ANd I'm kinda puzzled since my scan results don't point to 1 particular app as being the culprit.

 

Latest Java here and complete scan takes 1min. 1sec. I'm also using FF3 and XP SP3. Have you tried clearing your browsers cache? You might try uninstalling and reinstalling Java again.

 

HI innerpeace,

I've tried clearing FF3 cache, JRE cache, & re-installing both after a PC reboot, but it's still slow.

But I'm still suspecting JRE on my system though. I noticed with current Opera scans, the differences are:
(1) the Java tray icon doesn't appear during the scan
(2) the "Currently Processing" scan status zips-by very quickly like in the past, whereas in FF3/IE7 the downloading of secunia sigs & disk checking activity is now very sluggish.

Any idea if Java runs differently in Opera than with FF3/IE7?

 

I think it could be related to my old PIII system. "firefox.exe" now runs at constant 99% during scans, while "opera.exe" between 85-97%. So the constant bottlenecking with FF/JRE6u7 could be causing the sluggish scan on my PC.

 

Hi yeow,

Go into Control Panel and double-click Java and then select the Advanced tab. Press the + button beside "Default Java for Browsers" and make sure Opera, Firefox and IE7 are ticked. Then click apply and OK and if necessary close the config.

If that doesn't help, what is your default browser? What OS are you running? Did you download the Java installer and then run it offline? Have you updated to Firefox 3.0.1? It just came out yesterday I think. Also, if you can remember what changes did you make between the time it was working normally and now. You might also check and see if a new security setting is affecting IE7 and FF, but not Opera.

 

HI

I ran the online scan using FF2.0 & no slowdown - 2min 48sec. "firefox.exe" was 34-60-85-95% cpu at various stages. So I think it really is my old PIII. Makes sense that most people don't experiences this with FF3 with newer machines.

That explains Firefox, but not IE7. But I have never ran the online scan with IE7 until now, so I cannot compare.

Both are ticked - "Microsoft Internet Explorer" and "Mozilla Family".

Java doesn't seem to have a specific entry for Opera. Have confirmed by reinstalling Opera first then JRE & vice versa. And checked with another PC too.

FF3.0.1 / XP SP3/ Java offine install.

Last time I ran the online scan was Nov or Dec 2007. The only major change since then was XP SP3.

 

That reminds me, my dad has slower Duron machine running IE6 (don't ask). I was very puzzled why it took closed to 45mins to complete the scan, when mine took under 3min. This was also around Nov or Dec 2007.

Next time I'm there, I'll try again with Opera to compare it with IE6.

 

Hi yeow,

I'm out of ideas . I'm really stumped and was hoping someone else had other ideas. The only thing I can think of is some sort of security program like Spybot S&D or Spyware Blaster that "immunizes" IE7 and Firefox might be blocking it.

Regards,
innerpeace

 

Hi innerpeace,

No immunization in use. Any I think I've sorta confirmed its due to high cpu on OLD systems:

1. My dad's Celeron, IE6, XP3, "thorough" scan - 10mins and going (I stopped it), very sluggish scan. Using Opera 9.51, it finished at 5min 39sec & was more "lively".

2. No problem on his Pentium M, IE6, XP3 - 1min 58sec.

So probably this slowdown may only be felt on P3 and Celeron (OLD!) when using IE6, IE7 & FF3. So in case u also have one & it's taking too long, try using Opera for the scan.

 

Hello yeow,

I guess the thorough scan searches more of the hard drive which may be slower on an older machine and combined with an older processor and slower memory it might result in the slower scans. However, it is odd that Opera does ok even on the old machines. I'm not even going try and figure out why .

Maybe that is why many folks say Opera is a fast browser...