Microsoft Does Not Play Well With Avast

My PC has a Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2 operating system with an Internet Explorer 9.0 browser. I suspect that Windows Firewall is preventing my free Avast Home Edition antivirus program from updating itself.

First, I get an annoying red Avast pop-up that states “An error has occurred while attempting to update! Click here for more information…” Then I get a User Account Control box that states that an unidentified program wants access to my computer, namely, VisthAux.exe

I click on “Allow.” Then I get an Avast Antivirus Setup box stating:
“Summary Information about current update:
Last encountered error: Cannot connect to download400.avast.com (50.7.188.82:80).”

After clicking “Close,” I get another annoying red Avast pop-up that states “You are using old VPS (virus database) 130918-5 Please update it!!!” Then I get a “VistUpd.exe is required” flashing orange button on the taskbar.

After clicking “Allow,” I get another Avast Antivirus Setup box stating:
“Downloading packages
Downloading file: vps-13121201.vpu
0 out of 108,370,496 bytes complete”

Since no bytes are being downloaded, I click the “Cancel” button.

Is there a solution to this problem?

Or is the Avast antivirus software no match for Windows Firewall and Avast should be uninstalled?

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=70608.0

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=39395.0