Hi,
I recently upgraded avast (free) to version 2014.9.0.2006 (from 8.0.x) and had some trouble with the WebShield:
it blocked the update process of the film list from "MediathekView" (a Java-based software to view/save the contents of German public TV stations via VLC).
I first tried to enter the URLs of the update servers, but it did not work. I thought about adding the process ("MediathekView.exe") in the exclusion list, but the button "Add.." did not work at the first time.
My solution was: check the "Add process" field, then close the GUI and re-open it again, then the field to choose/add process and appears properly.
Check the behaviour of this setting please, maybe there are other users having the same or similar problem.
System: MS Windows 7 Pro x64, avast Free 2014.9.0.2006, MediathekViev 3.3.0, Java 1.7.0_45-b18
Best regards
werfox