Web/Network Shield and Firefox 3 issue

[tayg13]

Whenever the web and or network shields in avast are active i get an error in firefox that says "firefox connection interrupted" when i try to visit any site. The problem stops when i stop the shields. When the shields are on, firefox is useless, but i can still use IE perfectly. I tried lowering the sensitivity to normal with no luck. I am running avast 4.8 pro, ESET smart security, and uniblue spi eraser. I narrowed the problem down to avast however.

[DavidR]

The network shield has no interaction with your browser.

The whole situation sounds more like a clash to me so you can't pin it down to a single element, it takes two to clash.

With a personal firewall, antispam, and the same antivirus and antispyware protection delivered by ESET NOD32® Antivirus, ESET Smart Security is the most comprehensive defense against Internet threats.

I don't know exactly what ESET smart security does, but there is every likelihood that a clash it possible as it has, an anti-virus (not recommended to have two resident AVs installed) and also a firewall (which could possibly be blocking the web shield, though it should also block IE).

I also don't know if uniblue spi eraser might not clash with the network shield as SPI is a term related to packet inspection. However, I believe you made a typo there and you mean uniblue spy eraser. I doubt that that would get in the way but again I don't know exactly how it works.

So I believe your problem is one of having two resident AVs installed on the same system.

[tayg13]

i thought that may have been the problem
what do you recommend?

[DavidR]

It really is a case of which AV you prefer and uninstall the other.

It isn't as simple as disabling the ESET AV element (possibly the anti-spyware possibly not) as there would still be low level device drivers loaded and retaining the firewall and anti-spam. You would need to uninstall the suite and do a custom install and deselect the AV component.