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Can localization affect WSA performance?

  • 12 October 2012
  • 6 replies
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pegas
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Userlevel 7
I have some long lasting issues with WSA ... the missing padlock, problems with the Identity & Web shield and lately with the Firewall. All of these issues have been duly discussed with the support and they tend to believe they might stem from my OS and localization. I have agreed with Joe to debug my system remotely to confirm or refute the presumption once he is available. So it is not my intention now to make any hasty conclusions until the debugging.
 
However in the light of above I have a simple question. How the OS and localization can affect WSA performance?
 
In my case I have Vista Business SP2 with the Czech localization. I thought that all modules, services, features etc. of WSA should work on all supported OS (what Vista is) regardless on localization. I never was having issues with other applications because of my localization including security ones like Norton, ESET etc.
 
If we would accept that localization could have influence on WSA which modules, services etc. of WSA might be plagued? Are those only GUI hitches like missing padlock or can it go even deeper? Let’s take the Identity shield for instance. I can read in the main GUI that “A secure session is currently active and being protected by the Identity Shield” but the padlock is missing. So how can I be sure that the Shield is really fully working and isn’t just being obfuscated due to localization incompatibilities?
 
I am not complaining or bashing WSA. I have been using former Prevx and nowadays WSA so long and I am not going to change it. I just want to have some technical clarification how localization can affect and/or trick WSA.
 
Thanks for explanation & regards,
pegas
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Best answer by Kit 12 October 2012, 17:17

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6 replies

RetiredTripleHelix
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Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I still have intermittent issues with the Tray Icon not showing the Padlock as I have HTTPS & HTTP set to Max I have told JoeJ a number of times and awhile back JimM did a remote session and he seem to have found the problem but it seems to have come back even before the 2013 version came out and even on the current Beta so I don't think it's just you and your OS as I'm running Win 7 x64.
 
TH
pegas
Rank
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
I still have intermittent issues with the Tray Icon not showing the Padlock as I have HTTPS & HTTP set to Max I have told JoeJ a number of times and awhile back JimM did a remote session and he seem to have found the problem but it seems to have come back even before the 2013 version came out and even on the current Beta so I don't think it's just you and your OS as I'm running Win 7 x64.
 
TH
Thanks TH for the information. Yes I know I noticed similar issues across the Community and Wilders forums. However I aimed my post rather generally, i.e. is there a possibility WSA could suffer because of localization? I don't much care about OS because I use the supported OS.
RetiredTripleHelix
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Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Yes I understood and agree!
 
TH
pegas
Rank
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
Yes I understood and agree!
 
TH
Thanks TH for your endless support here and on Wilders as well.
 
pegas
Kit
Userlevel 7
Having done some coding, I can say that localization can indeed make things an absolute pain for software, especially depending on the OS itself.  Vista did not fix many of the localization problems at all.  A short list of things that can plague software operations on localized machines:
 
- Keyboard scan code differences
- UTF-8 and UTF-16 differences
- System Character differences (Take a look at a DOS directory structure on a Japanese system, for example.  No between directories.)
- Time format differences (Usually in the date)
- System naming convention differences.  Write a program that works in %systemdrive%Program Files for example and it'll harf on an Arabic system where it would actually have to access C:????? ???????
- Differences in support library binaries.  Microsoft had a REALLY bad habit of not being consistent in their DLL code base through Vista.
 
So yes, localization can definitely have a strong impact on any program, WSA included.  The last of those is the most common cause in Vista.  Whether those or something else is the specific issue in your case, I cannot determine.
Kit - Prior Webroot Quality Assurance / Prior Webroot Escalation Engineer
pegas
Rank
Userlevel 7
Many thanks Kit for the thorough explanation ;)
 
It looks like Vista is not a system Microsoft should boast with :D 
 
Anyway, you said "... can plague software operations on localized machines:" so can I understand that if the unsupported language (in my case the Czech) would be incorporated into WSA it could vastly improve behaviour of WSA as regards incompatibilities?

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