Does your firewall allow ashWebSv.exe internet access ?
- If it does delete the entry for it and do a manual update and reconnect to the internet, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.
even with the firewall off I cannot get through to the internet...I have to turn off avast 4.6. My previous virus protection was Shield...it is removed now.
We are aware of that please humour us and answer the questions and check the permissions as asked, as even when you think your firewall is off drivers will still be running and may have an effect.
However, if as you say you have avast 4.6 it is well out of date (the latest being 4.7.1098), so before doing any further fault finding, I suggest you download the latest version and do a clean reinstall.
Download the latest version of avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility,
find it here and save it to your HDD.
Now uninstall, reboot, run the uninstall utility, reboot install the latest version, reboot.