I updated my ATI graphics drivers yesterday and afterward the web shield started blocking all browsing in Firefox and IE. Disabling the web shield would allow me to browse again. I rolled back the drivers and it worked again, but the old drivers are 3 years old so I reinstalled the new drivers and did some testing.
It's a strange issue: I use two monitors, and when I only have one monitor enabled the web shield works fine. When I enable the second monitor the web shield blocks all browsing, and I was able to reproduce this every time I enabled/ disabled the second monitor. To test it I disabled the second monitor, I disabled Avast shields, then I enabled the second monitor, then enabled the Avast shields again, and now the web shield works.
To sum up, If I enable the second monitor while Avast is running the web shield blocks all browsing afterward. If I enable the second monitor while Avast is disabled, then enable Avast the web shield works fine.