Proxy connection problem

Hi folks.

Using Avast Home 4.6.691 on Win98SE. As of today I’m unable to connect to the internet (dial-up) using Mozilla or IE unless I uncheck the proxy connection in either program. The proxy connection was to enable on-access scanning of email, newsgroups and web pages and has worked fine since I first set it up about three months ago.

In IE6 I get the standard message that starts “The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings…”
In Mozilla 1.7.11 I get “The connection was refused when attempting to contact the proxy server you have configured. Please check your proxy settings and try again”.

No problem with email (T-bird) or newgroups (OE6).

This condition seems to have occurred since I updated the definitions earlier today (0532-0), but that may be a coincidence. The first time the connection was refused a “reporting box” from Avast popped up but unfortunately I didn’t use it.

Would appreciate any help you can offer.

RF, no proxy problems on my side… maybe I’m lucky ;D
Which address and port did you configure in your browser and into avast proxy settings?
The update from today has nothing different from the others, just database, no program, no drive, no settings were changed.

If you disable WebShield will it work?
If you just boot, will it work again?

Check out these links:
http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html
For IE - dialup users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (Dial-up)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox

Thanks for those links. I’ve bookmarked them and will check them against my settings. In the meantime though, as Sinatra once sang, “I did it my way”. First, a spyware check with Spybot and AdAware, and then a complete deep virus scan. All negative. Then using GoBack, which has saved my *&^%! about a hundred times, I reverted to the start of the day. Everything worked fine with the proxy connection enabled. Finally, just to satisfy my curiosity, I downloaded the latest virus definition (which GoBack had removed), and again no problems whatsoever with Moz or IE, at least so far.

So the process was a little short on detective work, but I think things are fixed now. Thanks for your timely response, and if this story isn’t over I’ll certainly post back.