So, what exactly is this thread about?
1. The initial question was if turning on the WebShield while running Sygate is safe.
2. Then Jarmo P feels somehow offended when people start suggesting to dump Sygate and use something else.
Here's my comments to both of those:
1. Frankly, we (the team) find the whole Sygate-WebShield discussion exaggerated. With the new 623 version, where WebShield is "opt-in" only (i.e. filters communication only from certain well defined (and quite likely trusted) apps), it's like 99% safe. Indeed, there are ways to "hack"such a configuration (which I won't discuss here) but the malware would have to be explicitly aware of the situation, which is quite unlikely... So, to answer the first question, I'd say that YES, definitely, it is safe to allow avast web scanner.
The original poster, RV01, should keep in mind, however, that since he's using Windows ME, it is necessary to configure the WebShield manually (by setting up the localhost proxy in IE). This is discussed in detail in the avast help file.
2. Jarmo P, no one was forcing you to dump Sygate. It was just a suggestion... but you obviously overreacted (instead of saying 'no thanks' you start calling people 'ignorants'. Sygate has its issues. It works for some, and doesn't work for other. The localhost issue is a long-standing one (but I understand that it cannot be simply _fixed_ - because the firewall engine, as it is now, is filtering at NDIS level, which never sees any localhost communication at all. Therefore, the code would have to be more or less rewritten to fix this issue).
But let me say again that the mere existence of WebShield would never cause me to dump Sygate (if I was otherwise happy with it) - because the localhost issue was very mitigated with the 623 release.
Thanks
Vlk