Hi guys,
all traffic goes via WebShield, so if WebShield has a problem connecting to the Web - your browsers have it. If turning off the WebShield solves it for you, it really means, that the problem is that WebShield is blocked from accessing the Web. (or to be honest there might be other thing on the process of connecting your browser to the WebShield's proxy, but generaly what I have written is true). If you have updated avast! and then it started to happen, it really seems it should be your firewall blocking it - since during update the main service process (where WebShield and other avast! services are hosted) is modified and firewall might warn you about such change.
It these cases (with 3rd party firewall) we usually sugest giving the firewall a second chance to detect the changes. To do it you have to restart the avast! service. Which means:
1) disable avast self-defence in Setting/Troubleshooting - this is allows you to stop the main service
2) now stop avast! main service - go to Control panel/Service, find out Avast! Antivirus Service and Stop it
3) go to you firewall, find the entry for avastsvc.exe and delete it
4) now restart the service process - again in control panel
5) re-enable self-defence in avast!
You should see a popoup from the firewall, or an automatic rule addition for avast! process, both for outgoin and incomming traffic. The main service host both mail and webshield, so it listens on TCP port 12080 (for WebShield), it then need the right to accept incomming connection on that port, and it then connects to the webserver in behalf of the browser, so it needs the right to connect to Internet as well.
L.