Web Shield blocking secure web pages and others - Firefox browser only

[Polaris13]

Hi All
I've looked over the forum and FAQ, none of which seemed to cover my exact issue...

Avast IS Pro for 2 years without problems - its been great


XP sP3 with Firefox,Opera,IE,Chrome

Can't access Firefox https sites - Firefox is my preferred browser for transactions
eg:    https://signin.ebay.com.au/

Chrome I use for general browsing, and that works with the secure sites (https) without any problems (it gets to the login pages).
Firefox tho, can't access the login pages of secure sites.

the evidence I have that the Avast web shields are the blocking agent is that turn them off for 10 mins and all functions normally.
when they come back on the sites are blocked.

"Unable to connect"
  "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at signin.ebay.com.au."   
  "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."

have tried the following
winsock fix - did not fix it.
looked up the settings in Avast - cookies, browser protection, site blocking - cleared and reactivated all in turn to make sure it wasn't something obvious.
even putting https//* in the web shield exclusions... all without success.
uninstalled/reinstall of Firefox - moved prior profile setting to be sure

any other suggestion please ?

regards Matt

[Gopher John]

I have no problems visiting that site using Firefox 19.0.2.  I'm using AIS.

The site does a redirect when visited.  Do you have anything in Firefox that would stop that?

[Polaris13]

thanks for lightning quick response

unlikely - it's a fresh install... plus it only exhibits problem when web shield is on.
Web shields off = ok.



should have mentioned this is still AIS 7 . 

thx Matt

[Gopher John]

WebShield doesn't block https connections.  In AIS 7 (maybe also Avast 8 )it also cannot scan them.  The message that you are getting is from Firefox.  If Avast were blocking that site specifically, it would be an Avast alert and clearly identified.

I can and do use Firefox for my financial transactions.  All are HTTPS: and I've never had any problems with any versions of AIS.  One thing that you may try that is painless is with Firefox closed, delete all applications rules for Firefox in the Avast Firewall.  When you restart Firefox, they will be recreated again.