Avast Firewall Interference with Microsoft Edge and Outlook Connectivity

I’m experiencing an issue with Avast Premium Security Firewall that’s affecting Microsoft Edge and Outlook. Despite setting up firewall rules that explicitly allow both applications to connect to the internet, they are slow or unable to load as expected. I’ve tried deleting and recreating the rules, and even set the firewall to smart mode, but the problem persists. It appears that Avast Firewall is somehow delaying the network connections for Edge and Outlook, Other browsers and applications remain unaffected and load normally. Any suggestions for resolving this without disabling the firewall entirely?

This issue is years old and hasn’t been resolved:

I noticed that when choosing “Smart Mode” in Firewall Setting under "How should firewall treat new app? option, Edge & Outlook work quickly and fine, no delay. even the same when turning off Avast’s firewall. any thoughts on that?.
Edge & Outlook issue happen with “Ask” option (but I prefer that option). that is a flaw with Avast’ Firewall functionality.