Hi
I have the same problem, and I did what was suggested by Tech.
I tried to visit several pages and found that it blocked all www addresses, but [semi-]allowed local addresses. I.e. I could open my router's administration website (192.168.1.1), but JS didn't work there, as in FF so in IE.
After all manipulations listed by Tech AshWebSv.ws file was empty and AshWebSv.log had the following:
29.08.2008 0:21:17,"
http://www.google.com/search?q=avast+web+shield+blocks+all+connections&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a","text/html; charset=UTF-8","GET",HTTP Status: 302,0,357,664,920,920,666,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1164 <--> 192.168.1.33:1165->74.125.39.103:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:23,"
http://yandex.ru/","text/html; charset=iso-8859-1","GET",HTTP Status: 301,0,237,506,722,722,508,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1166 <--> 192.168.1.33:1167->213.180.204.11:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:23,"
http://www.yandex.ru/","text/html; charset=windows-1251","GET",HTTP Status: 200,0,10774,11167,726,726,11169,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1168 <--> 192.168.1.33:1169->93.158.134.3:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:28,"
http://192.168.1.1/","","GET",HTTP Status: 302,0,196,378,404,404,357,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1170 <--> 192.168.1.33:1171->192.168.1.1:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:28,"
http://192.168.1.1/home.asp","text/html","GET",HTTP Status: 200,0,562,701,412,412,703,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1172 <--> 192.168.1.33:1173->192.168.1.1:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:28,"
http://192.168.1.1/rpPanel.asp","text/html","GET",HTTP Status: 200,0,5146,5285,453,453,5287,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1174 <--> 192.168.1.33:1176->192.168.1.1:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:21:28,"
http://192.168.1.1/status.asp","text/html","GET",HTTP Status: 200,0,10041,10180,452,452,10182,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1175 <--> 192.168.1.33:1177->192.168.1.1:80,SEQ: 1
29.08.2008 0:22:23,"
http://www.google.com/search?q=avast+web+shield+blocks+all+connections&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a","text/html; charset=UTF-8","GET",HTTP Status: 302,0,357,1328,1840,1840,1332,\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox 3\firefox.exe,PID: 4836,CON: 127.0.0.1:12080->127.0.0.1:1164 <--> 192.168.1.33:1165->74.125.39.103:80,SEQ: 1
I'm really confused because I have been using AVAST for several years now, and that's the first time of it's "unpredictable" behavior that resulted in hours of lost time...