Firefox and Sophos

It's clear that a wide variety of things are going on under the hood of Web Protection and all contribute some delay to page loading. Moreover, the Sophos caching techniques (discussed here) tend to make direct comparisons in the same browsing session tricky. But I was wondering if one of the possible variables was the busyness of the server supporting Web Protection at any point in time, since it would logically seem so.

This is just curiosity though. I've mentioned elsewhere that, like anything else, internet security is a tradeoff, and I consider the Sophos Web Protection options valuable enough to put up with any delay they cause. It's a lot faster to wait for website clearance up front than to restore a boot disk from a clone at the back end, after a successful web attack has occurred.

As an aside, I periodically check the filtered SPAM that my email services don't pass through with WHOIS. The headers show the initiating IP addresses, and while the messages often seem friendly and local, they're coming from Russia or China or Indonesia or other places I'd hesitate to go, physically or virtually. Food for thought.

Perhaps all web browsers' startup screens should say "Abandon hope all ye who enter here (unless you've got Sophos installed)" but they don't since that would be bad for commerce as well as spoiling the fun.

It's clear that a wide variety of things are going on under the hood of Web Protection and all contribute some delay to page loading. Moreover, the Sophos caching techniques (discussed here) tend to make direct comparisons in the same browsing session tricky. But I was wondering if one of the possible variables was the busyness of the server supporting Web Protection at any point in time, since it would logically seem so.

This is just curiosity though. I've mentioned elsewhere that, like anything else, internet security is a tradeoff, and I consider the Sophos Web Protection options valuable enough to put up with any delay they cause. It's a lot faster to wait for website clearance up front than to restore a boot disk from a clone at the back end, after a successful web attack has occurred.

As an aside, I periodically check the filtered SPAM that my email services don't pass through with WHOIS. The headers show the initiating IP addresses, and while the messages often seem friendly and local, they're coming from Russia or China or Indonesia or other places I'd hesitate to go, physically or virtually. Food for thought.

Perhaps all web browsers' startup screens should say "Abandon hope all ye who enter here (unless you've got Sophos installed)" but they don't since that would be bad for commerce as well as spoiling the fun.