umm..i'm pretty sure avast! does not act like a firewall. About the only way it could act like a firewall would be if it blocked a harmful application from downloading from the net. I could be wrong on this one, but I know you shouldn't have two firewalls running at once, and every avast! user has another firewall (or should have one). My firewall recommendations are: zone alarm free, comodo, or PC Tools firewall. (my personal favorite is comodo, but i will probably get stoned by the avast! forum guys for even mentioning that)