Hi
I have the current version of Avast free, updated. This is on a Windows 7 computer running the current version of Zonealarm free firewall. Also have updated Chrome and Firefox browsers.
For the past couple of months, I have noticed that my computer would lose internet connection after a few minutes or hours of running, whether or not a browser was open. After it did this, the browsers (all of them) would freeze and I would have to restart the computer to get everything working again. I could close the frozen browser, but it could not be opened back up. Also, I tried to open The Gimp yesterday, and the startup would freeze during the "querying plugins."
I believe I've stumbled on the cause. I stopped the Avast mail scanner and this seems to have solved the problem. Once again, this occurs whether or not I have a browser open. I also use web mail (AOL), not an installed mail client.