RESOLVED Avast suddenly blocking all websites

[boogiewoogie]

I've been using the free Avast for a long time. Yesterday I suddenly noticed could not connect to any websites except Google, and surprise, Avast.com. Other sites don't even load, I just get either a blank page, or not even that, it just stays on the google page and the loading stops and nothing happens. Surprisingly I realized that if I turn off the Avast shields, everything works again. I even uninstalled it and reinstalled, but the same thing continues.

I even restored an image of my OS to a working one I created last week, but even in there, the same thing continued.

Any ideas what's going on?

[SafeSurf]

Welcome to the forum boogiewoogie. 

First I need to know the following:

1.   What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit?
2.   What version of Avast did you install?  5.0.594? 
3.   What product of Avast did you install?  Free, Pro, AIS?
4.   What other security software do you currently have or did you have in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs (resident and on-demand)?  If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor's uninstaller's tool or another way)?
5.   Are your MS Updates (if you have Windows) current?
6.   Are your software updates current?
7.   Are the Avast definitions (updates) current?
8.   When was the last time you did any kind of scan in Avast, and if so what kind of scan was it?

I'm sorry for all the questions, but this will help identify issues that are causing problems.  Thank you.

[boogiewoogie]

Hi. Thanks for replying. Here's more info

1. Win7 ultimate 64bit
2. 5.0.594
3. Free
4. Nothing else, just Windows firewall (tried turning it off too, but no change)
5. Yes, just ran update a few days ago
6. Yes
7. Yes, definitions just updated, it shows version 100827-1
8. I just made a quick scan, nothing found.

[boogiewoogie]

Also gettingn this message on some websites if I try to go them (in Firefox)

Content Encoding Error
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

got it right on
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-gigabyte-motherboard,5348.html

and earlier just from the facebook main page

But this all seems very weird, and on my other patition with same windows7 x64, I tried installing Avast and it works normally, so I think I'll just reinstall this partition.

[SafeSurf]

I want to check for malware on your machine:

Can you please update your Avast definitions > run a FULL scan > report the results.

After this, download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM).
·   Download free http://www.malwarebytes.org/ for an on-demand scanner.
·   Double Click mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
·   After install, click update so you have latest database before scanning.
·   Under Settings:
o   General: Automatically Save File After Scan Completes is checked off
o   Scanner Settings:  Check all boxes
o   Updater: Download and install update if available is checked off
·   Once the program has loaded, select "Perform FULL Scan", then click Scan.
·   The scan may take some time to finish, so please be patient.
·   When the disinfection scan is complete, a log will appear in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart. (See Extra Note).
·   Click the “remove selected” button to quarantine anything found.  You will find the infection details under the Quarantine tab.
·   The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
·   Copy & Paste the entire report in your next reply.

If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be presented with 1 of 2 prompts -- Click OK to either and let MBAM proceed with the disinfection process; If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately.

[boogiewoogie]

Hi

I did scan with mbam earlier and nothing came up. However, I went ahead and did a full format and now all is fine. Did not feel like looking for the source of the problem since it was time to do soem house cleaning anyway.

[SafeSurf]

So everything is working fine now?  You may want to try it for a few days to make sure. 

When you feel that your issue is now resolved/fixed, please go back to the open post in this topic, click the modify button in that Post and change the title/subject, add [Resolved] to the beginning of the title so this thread can be closed. 

Feel free to come back any time you need help, to learn something new, or just to ask questions.  We are here 24/7 for your convenience.  Thank you.