Firewall blocking internet access

Hello everyone.

I’ve had Avast premium security for ages and never had issues before. However since the latest update to the firewall (this problem has been happening in the 3 or 4 days since) its kills off my internet access in most programs.

Sometimes it will do it within 30 seconds of the PC power on, sometimes it takes two hours.
It wont let me load any web browser page (Edge and Opera both tried), it won’t let me load any internet based program.
Interestingly, it will still let me connect via the Steam program (online gaming app) but the friends list in steam won’t connect to the internet (says no connection).
Discord (voice app) will sometimes stay connected, sometimes it will kick me off the server and say no connection.

All web pages come back with “ERR_TIMED_OUT”

I’ve found that if i turn off Avast firewall nothing changes initially, but when i got to task manager and physically stop the “Avast firewall” program, i will get a little Avast pop up that says “confirm shut down” - i do that and within 30 seconds my internet comes back 100% at speed every time.

If i turn the firewall back on at this point it will again sometimes kill the internet in 30 seconds, sometimes hours.

Very strange. I’m satisfied the problem is the firewall, I tried the usual fixes, turning the router off and on, checked to make sure I have the latest updates for Avast, I’ve done a full virus scan and spyware scan (spybot) just to make sure nothing more sinister is happening. I’ve checked with my internet provider for any outages or problems there end, they have done a little test and confirm nothing wrong that they can see with the equipment from their end and no issues on their wider network.

I’ve got no way (rather then phoning) of making Avast aware other then posting here.

anyone else having any issues? any suggestions on fixes?

Many thanks

EDIT - i also can’t rule out if it is the anti-track software, sometimes I have to disable that as well to get internet access back.

This appears to be the complaint,
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=299021.msg1649140#msg1649140
It’s already been forwarded to Avast and they are looking into it.