I am/ was having problems surfing the web using IE6. I could get to the site but not fully dowload the page. This seemed to be random and from time to time some pages would fully down load. I use Netscape as my backup browser and e-mail and it worked fine untill yesterday 3-19. I installed Firefox hoping to solve the problem and it had the same result. I disabled my Spysweepr and installed pest patrol to see if a ghost was messing with me. Pest Patrol found a vew things, but nothing worth mentioning. The result was the same I could not surf the web. I then disabled the web shield in Avast and all three browsers statred working. I then started the web shield and within five min No browser could function. After disabeling the web shield all browsers worked.
I am running windows 2000 with service pac 4 and all hot fixes. This is a amd 2500 machine with 1 gig of ram.
What firewall do you use?
And has it been configured to allow webshield access?
I am using my cable company as my ISP and using a Linksys router in front of the modem. I use no software firewall
twore,
It seems as though thenew Web Shield is causing some problems with users.
At this point, since disabling the WS corrects the problem, I would try this in order to localize the area within WS that may be the culprit:
Open up the On Access Protection console, choose Web Shield module and open it.
Under the Basic tab, uncheck" Intelligent stream scanning". Now reboot computer and try the internet sites again.
Let me know if this helps. If not, its’ back to the drawing board. 
Thanks for the advice. It seems to be working.