Hello apex809 and welcome to the forum.
It would have been preferable if you started your own thread, as was pointed out, rather than add to a 2-year old thread because yours got lost here.
Anyway, lets help you out. I need to get some information from you:
1. What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit?
2. What version of Avast did you install? 5.0.677?
3. What product of Avast did you install? Free, Pro, AIS?
4. What other security software do you
currently have or did you have
in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs? If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor's uninstaller's tool or another way)?
5. Is your FW blocking anything related to Avast?
6. How do you connect to the Internet normally? Proxy, Broadband/DSL, other way?
If you open the Avast GUI > Settings > Updates > Details > Update Parameters...do you have anything checked off under these settings ("I only connect to the Internet using a dial up modem" or " My computer is permanently connected to the Internet")? What is checked if anything?
If you open the Avast GUI > Settings > Updates > Proxy Settings > do you have anything checked off here ("Direct connection/no proxy" or is "Auto Detect/Use IE Settings")? What is checked if anything?
Did you change any other settings?