In your “Control panel” go to “Programs ans features” then click on Avast! Antivirus and run its uninstaller; then select “Change” option in uninstaller menu, uncheck Web shield and continue the unistallation process, after that restart the OS. Again, after system restarted, go to Control panel - Programs and features, and run Avast! free antivirus uninstaller and select change option, check Web shiled and complete the process, restart your OS.
Now you should have a working internet connection and your web shield back.
I had the same problem in Windows 7 after installing the SP1. I tried every thing I found in the web and nothing solve the problem for me. However the problem dissapear after disable / enable the Web Shield.
I found a configuration option to force Avast services to start after other system services.
Settings > Troubleshooting > Load avast! services only after loading other system services.
Having that setting selected fix the problem for me.
I hope that help all the guys having problems with avast! in Windows 7 SP1.
It looks to me that the SP1 introduces some dependencies some system service that probably are required for avast! Web Shiel service. I think avast services blocks the related traffic (in that case HTTP) until the service is properly started. so if the Web Shield service can not start properly because some other service has not started yet, the HTTP traffic may be blocked and the restart of the Web Shield fix the problem. So forcing starting avast! later on fix the problem.
If enabling the “Load avast! services only after loading other system services.” does not help, reconfiguring the avast! service manually to Start Type Automatic (Delayed) may help also.
