Sorry to throw a mix-bag here, but the real problem is not AVAST. There several issues here. When you upgrade to Windows 8, was it clean install (if you used windows xp or earlier version) or upgreade from windows 7? A clean install of the OS should solve most issues. Another particular problem is, by default, windows has it's own security element (i.e windows firewall, windows defender) active, so when you install Avast, Windows Defende gets disable but Firewall stays active. Infact unkonwingly, you may be running 2 version firewall, you will have some serious problem installing or accessing networks.
In relation to OS upgrades, you should follow this steps:
- Download the latest copy of AVAST, and Latest copy of all the fault drives on your HDD
- Disconnect from the internet, otherwise your system is wide open to the elements.
- Uninstall your existing copy of AVAST (Use the AVAST Unistaller utility from http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility)
- Uninstall all you faulty drivers (a complete uninstall is a must!)
- Reboot the system
- Once up and running, install the drivers (using the latest drives downloaded earlier) one at a time and rebooting system after each driver installation.
- Don't forget stay disconnected, if you are updating the network drivers.
- Install latest copy of AVAST last
- Now eanble the network connection
You should able to connect to the net, and all other devices should work.
If you have a network printer, you may wat to disable the avast NDIS Filter Driver in Network Adapter properties panel, before start printing and re-enable it when done.
I hope this helps.