Hi Aajax!
First, you can disable the product by right-clicking the tray icon and choosing to disable the shields under Avast Shields control - for example disabling until next reboot.
Avast Free does not have a firewall component per say, but it does include web traffic scanning. As Asyn mentions you will need to provide more details about the Apache issue for us to be of much assistance.
Cheers,
Mac