Well, that's gonna have to wait for awhile longer, til have a chance to reboot, then I expect things will return to normal(?). My computer now refuses to connect to anything if the avast Web Shield is turned on. No email, no websites with a browser, no nothing. I can't even connect to my modem's IP address. For example:
Unable to connect
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at forum.avast.com.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
So I had to turn the Web Shield off just to connect again and post this...