Telegraph, sorry for not being clear about that, but this patch is for windows7 and higher. The patched driver, aswstm.sys, is not used on Windows XP and Vista.
You’re welcome Hernan.
…I deleted the temporary solution:
websheld.ini
[General]
UseStreamFilter=0
after emergency patch…and all is OK!
Thanks! 
Win7PRO no sp1
Noted, thanks. Interestingly, I just went to the INI to do that, and that whole [General] para was gone already – I don’t remember deleting it myself, but possibly the EmUpdate patch also put in a fresh INI.
Guess I need clarification at this point. Should I put that para back in so it’s explicit (with new value of 1, presumably), or as another poster noted, does it in effect default to on in the absence of any entry? Thanks again, and best.
(Edit, afterthought) I’m still getting delays moving from page to page on the web, but the pages seem to load quickly enough once located – seems more like a DNS traffic problem than anything to do with avast.
Nope, there’s no need for change in the .ini file no more 
Everything is working as intended after emergency update.
This will hardly surprise you Lukor!: What are we XP Luddites meant to do if the patch doesn’t patch the problem for us? Would Avast kindly provide an alternative please (with instructions on how to implement for dummies)
This seems to have fixed my problem.
I am running Win 7 Pro 64 bit.
Hi, this must be completely unrelated issue, some of the users reported that switching back to old (but also tried and true) webshield with proxy helped them with the issue, which helped us identify the problem inside the new driver.
Have you tried enabling webshield scanning for “well known browsers only”?
Hi! I had this issue before patch and I have it now with a new (.265) aswstm.sys file in avast x86 folder. Problem is that aswstm.sys file in windows’ drivers folder is the old one .263
Running Win7 32 SP0.
Replaced it manually in safe mode. Seems as problem is fixed now.
"Have you tried enabling webshield scanning for “well known browsers only”?
There are obviously a whole load of permutations of options within Settings Active Protection and up to now I have just gone along with the defaults. My latest attempt had all the boxes ticked within Web Shield but in addition the one you suggested “Scan traffic from well known browsers only” → No change, nothing happens after I click on download attachment. I could try blindly changing all the other boxes within Mail Shield and File System Shield, ending up with disabling 100% of Active Protection - at which point it would be more sensible to replace Avast with MS Security Essentials or AVG before I do any damage. The block could of course be due to something completely unrelated, but that would be a coincidence.
Is there no one else reading this who uses Yahoo Mail together with 32-bit XP and who has, or has not had these download problems, and if so with what settings??? 
Was the same for me. But there does seem to be a solution.
As noted in the build 2011 thread, the issue seems to be running a managed HOSTS file. (I use the MVPS HOSTS file.) Once I temporarily renamed it, the new aswstm.sys showed up fairly quickly.
To Avast:
Please publicly let us know what domain(s) is the issue with Avast and a HOSTS file that is used to block ads, browsing analytics and so forth. This would give us the option of modifying our HOSTS file if we wish to do so. (Why you would need to track us for this is beyond me but clearly this is the issue at hand.)
"The block could of course be due to something completely unrelated, but that would be a coincidence.
Is there no one else reading this who uses Yahoo Mail together with 32-bit XP and who has, or has not had these download problems, and if so with what settings??? " [This is my own quote - is this allowed?!]
I haven’t had time to check this out properly - yet - but it could be that the download block, the way I’ve got the system set up, kicks in when I’m using Chrome, but not if I switch to IE. Any logic in this, if true?
I am apparently a late adopter, I just got this problem today. I upgraded my Avast! this afternoon but didn’t use the computer immediately, hence I didn’t relate my later-discovered dead internet connection with Avast until now. (It would work for a couple minutes after each reboot so I managed to get a couple web searches done and figure out it was Avast.)
Because I upgraded “late” the “fixed” files must have installed right along with the upgrade itself for me (I’m assuming the version numbers of those two files pre-fix were different than the “fixed” files.) so I never had this upgrade version without them… and yet I have the problem. 
So now that I know what’s doing it I decided to test: Web Shield Off = completely normal I even ran a speed test, full speed. Turn Web Shield On, the speed test kills the internet connection instantly, it can’t get past the ping portion before the connection is dead. So my problem must be the Web Shield, even though I have the “fix.”
I’m running Windows 7, BTW. (64 bit if it helps)
Could you please post a version info of the aswstm.sys file inside c:\Windows\system32\drivers? Just to be sure the fix had been correctly applied.
Ahhh. In the system folder it’s 9.0.2011.263 not the .265 that’s in the Avast folder. Even though both files were modified at the same time, the system folder got the old file!
Thanks a lot, this is a problem. We’ll try ti find out why is this happening!
I’ve just ‘upgraded’ my partners laptop (running windows 7) with Avast 2014.9.,0 2011. Worked 100% before, but now won’t connect properly using various browsers to the internet. I either get nothing ( just a ‘connection’ error), or page doesn’t load properly.
I’ve now disabled ‘web shield’ and all working again. Is it my understanding that you will automatically apply a long term fix for this via ‘automatic updates’ rather than me just disabling a major part of the program?
Hello people!
Question and suggestions:
Since the avast 2014 is clearly rushed to the marked could someone make a tutorial or a link to revert to the older version of AVAST?
My browsing experience is a nightmare since i switched to the new version. And in the meantime i would suggest to not push out 2014 update automatically because you will loose a lot of people.
Recommending avast 2014 in this current version is not an option. Not a good thing for holidays.
Thanks!
The patch installed without problems in my PC. Win 8.1 64 bit
Thanks for this interresting story. How are your experiences with this patch?