One solution for slow downloads ... AVG users

patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
edited December 1969 in The Commons

AVG users, open the AVG user interface and under "LinkScanner" uncheck the "Enable Surf-Shield". Save the changes and downloading goes MUCH not only here but at several other websites also.

Comments

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I prefer not to give malware and viruses a free ride on to my comp.

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    That doesn't turn off the AV, real time protection is still at work. Just turns off the link scanner which really doesn't need to be scanning to death the downloads, which are again scanned when download is complete anyway ;-)

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited July 2012

    That doesn't turn off the AV, real time protection is still at work. Just turns off the link scanner which really doesn't need to be scanning to death the downloads, which are again scanned when download is complete anyway ;-)

    Once they are already on your computer, and what ever may have piggy backed on your download is on your comp. A little late then.

    Post edited by ManStan on
  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited December 1969

    I thought Link Scanner only checked the links on a displayed page for known malware URLs, nothing to do with active AV or download scanning, which are separate modules in AVG. So it should be possible to disable just this and still have full normal AV protection.

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    Well I've tested it on 3 websites [trusted websites I might add] ... and the only change was disabling this surf shield link scanner. It actively scans the download while it is downloading making the process about a 30 k/s instead of 100s or even over a mb per sec. Difference of 3 hours or 5 minutes. Now being online with an active download for 3 hours is rather more likely to leave a door open for trouble than a few seconds or minutes would.


    And before link scanner was even an option ... no ManStan it is not too late. Once downloaded, the AV scan is called for by FF and is done. If there's a problem the download goes bye-bye. And for the record so far this has only happened once and if I recall correctly it was a false positive.


    However if one is downloading stuff from "unknown" or "known problem type sites" ... then yes, one would want "all" the protection one can get. However I would recommend a full suite of $ products if one has need to be that careful.


    Keep in mind that the main AVG AV service is running at all times ;-)
    IF anything piggy backed; it's supposed to be caught and dealt with.
    No AV is 100% protection ... if anybody suspects a problem, there are also AV online scanning services available like Housecall. There's also the "rather good idea" to clear out the temp folders before closing the computer so hopefully nothing is left over from just general 'being on the internet' to run at startup. Cleaning out the Prefetch folder can also be helpful ... but possibly not when in the middle of updating AV or OS drivers.

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited July 2012

    I thought Link Scanner only checked the links on a displayed page for known malware URLs, nothing to do with active AV or download scanning, which are separate modules in AVG. So it should be possible to disable just this and still have full normal AV protection.

    That's what I thought too ... but apparently it keeps scanning the link indefinitely while the download is in progress. It was so nice to see the downloads from sharecg.com jumping up over a mb/sec again!

    And for everyone who's not familiar with the AVG interface, it is very easy to turn off ... then back on, this particular feature.

    update: joys at sharecg were short lived ... back to slow as molasses ... btw, one page has over 120 links! Sure would slow down a link scanner.

    Post edited by patience55 on
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