Avast Free disabled VPN to backup NAS

Hi All,
I have been using Avast Free for a couple months since I purchased my Windows 10 HP Spectre laptop.
I back up my laptop harddrive files to a QNAP NAS over a VPN that I can access any time and anywhere I am connected to the internet.

Last night, Avast said it detected a security issue with the VPN connection and asked if I wanted it fixed. Like an idiot, I clicked yes, and now I can no longer access my NAS. When I try to enable the VPN, I immediately receive an error message that the address was rejected by the DHCP server. When I type the NAS address into the browser bar I get a message that suggests I check my firewall. I can’t find a firewall rule that would block my NAS address and I can’t see how Avast was able to get my router to reject connection requests.

For example, if Avast ran a script on the network to change the router, it didn’t do that by shutting down the VPN ports I use for forwarding.

Does anyone have any clue as to how Avast is locking down my network and how I can reset it?

What does not work is uninstalling and reinstalling Avast.

Also, since Avast made this “fix” I have occasionally experienced a blue screen of death with an issue with the TCPIP.SYS irql_not_less_or_equal
I hope fixing one will fix the other.

Regards