well it appears as though I’ve solved my issue, however im not sure if my solution will leave me vulnerable.

for Win 7, 64 bit:

  1. control panel/system and security/windows firewall
  2. Advanced settings
  3. inbound rules, I added ‘AvastUI’ from the avast folder and told it to allow connections
  4. outbound rules, I added ‘AvastUI’ from the same folder and told it to allow connections.

and I now appear to be able to connect to google, facebook and youtube without disabling the realtime shield.