Avast Web Shield using a lot of memory?

I installed Avast, and everything is fine and running perfectly, except for one thing. The Avast Web Shield is using almost 60 megs of memory even when I'm not browsing the internet. What's going on?

I have Avast updated to the latest version, I have no spyware/viruses or any of that junk on my PC, and I'm using Windows Firewall. Any clue what's going on?

Yeah it can easily spike up to 60+ MB of usage, however it shouldn't stay there constantly, typically it runs at about 30 MB on my system. Still though it causes me no issues. It does have many separate shields on that some say to disable, however I leave them all turned on.

Edit:

As I'm downloading a file I notice it using almost 70 MB RAM.

I installed Avast, and everything is fine and running perfectly, except for one thing. The Avast Web Shield is using almost 60 megs of memory even when I'm not browsing the internet. What's going on?

I have Avast updated to the latest version, I have no spyware/viruses or any of that junk on my PC, and I'm using Windows Firewall. Any clue what's going on?

At what level is the web shield set on? If set to normal, shouldn`t take more than 15MB.

Is that AshWebSv? I'm using 12,900 k. 60 mb is rather a lot. Are you XP? (PS Sorry. no clue.)

If set to normal, shouldn`t take more than 15MB.

I'm wondering if the memory usage is scalable by how much RAM a system has installed, don't know for sure just a thought.

One of the reasons I do not use or like Avast is it's heavy usage of resources. Too many processes running and too much RAM. It also takes too long to scan has too many false positives and a very ugly UI that is not very user friendly. Also when it auto updates it cripples the system for the time it's updating. Slows everything right down even on my fast computers. Even when not updating it slows down the system but much more so when updating. I do not understand the attraction to this AV on this forum. Avira is better in every way. I read about the right click problem some are having but I have never experienced it in the years I have use Avira.

Anomaly your issues with Avast I've never had for instance it scans my whole system which is pretty full with two 80GB drives in a mere 23 minutes, although I do respect what you've stated as each system reacts differently to software.

Um... I really think Avast is a lot better. For one, it has a lot more features. I've used Avira before, and I did not like it. Avast is very good for me, and actually it doesn't use that much resources at all. It uses even less than NOD32. Plus, you can always disable the protections that you don't need. I only have 3 running out of the 7: Web Shield, Network Shield, and Standard Shield. By the way, you're also wrong about the false positives. Avira gives WAY more false positives than Avast. Avast is the better antivirus in every way. I also have really fast updates, and I barely even notice any difference in speed either. I guess our systems are just different, and different programs work differently on different systems. :)

Btw, in the web shield, I think the memory spike was right after I installed Avast, so that was probably Avast like setting all the shields up. Now the mem usage is back down to about 15-20 mem.

The web shield is to act like an antivirus proxy so if no web activity is going on as in nothing for it to scan I'd imagine the mem usage would fall. To test this out download a file big enough so you can watch its mem usage in Task Manager.

Hmmm interesting comments. I have never had a false positive with Avira but had more than I wanted with Avast and I have current installs of Avast on family member's machines and they get the false positives to. It's very annoying since the scan stops until you acknowledge the alert and take some action. I will admit Avast has more features than Avira and some are nice like the boot scan option but I don't use those extra features and and I don't miss them. I prefer the clean simple UI of Avira and the low resource usage and fast scan times. On top of this Avira consistently ranks among the top in detection rates. In the end use what works for you.

I searched google for the AV Test results, and according to this website: http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02 Avira AntiVir ranks the top, with Avast coming second. I think I'll switch to AntiVir after they get their "right click freeze issue" fixed. I do not want to have that on my PC.

I think I'll switch to AntiVir after they get their "right click freeze issue" fixed.

Not sure if it got fixed with the latest update or not, but I haven't experienced it lately.

Avast Web Shield seems to start at under 2 mb, then racks up as you open web pages, but doesn't seem to release the memory significantly even if you close the browser (FF). I've never noticed, or worried, about this before, it's no great problem.

By the way, Icedrake's link doesn't actually rank Avira and Avast first and second, they just appear that way in the alphabetical table. Avira does get very favourable comments though, but is pipped by AVK in detection rates. It seems that whatever virus s/w you chose it should start with an A.

It seems that whatever virus s/w you chose it should start with an A.

At this time yes.

However in the near future we'll have even more choices as in Panda who has a new freeware antivirus called Panda Cloud Antivirus I just noticed on Download.com yesterday that they're going to keep freeware after the beta phase is over, and of course I'll be trying it out once it's out of beta. Then there's the freebie that's coming from Microsoft after they ditched their commercial OneCare AV product.

Also, don't those AV testing websites use the the paid versions of the programs? I think if they tested top free AVs using their free versions, I think Avast would come out as the best, since Avast Free is basically identical to the pro version except for a few differences that are not even noticeable. Plus, Avast has a web shield too, so a virus would be detected as you're on the page, while AVs that don't have the web shield, won't notice a thing until you actually download the infected file. That's just my opinion though. :)

P.S. I redecided and I think I will probably stick with Avast. I might switch to Avira though (about 25% chance) when they fix all of their problems and decrease their false positives. AVG is simply a no-no as it's let me down and has never actually prevented me from getting infected.

Plus, why does Avast take up almost 100 mb of disk space? In the installation it said the program was going to take about 50 mb of disk space.

Hand on heart I've never had a false positive with Avast. In fact I've never had any problem whatsoever with Avast, and I've probably been using it exclusively for as long as anyone on here.

In all this time I've never had a single hitch in updating the Virus Database (at least daily) or the Program itself. IMHO, a very reliable and effective A/V.

Strange how this thread has me now sometimes looking at the Web Shield memory usage. :lol: I noticed before starting my browser it was using under 7MB of memory, and now as I type this it's only using 10MB.

I've only ever had one false positive using Avast however after submitting a sample to them which is now years ago had it fixed in no time. AntiVir however has given me more than my fair share of false positives over the years including the newest version which detects of all things WinZip Self Extractor SFX ZIP archives that I myself made as infected, don't think so.

Im using AVAST also. No problem at all.

I am thinking of there may be something running on your background.?

just my thought :)

Icedrake did you run the appropriate Nod removal tool after uninstalling it?