"You're not online" ... except I am

When I try to use the Privacy Advisor or Password Protection feature, I’m told this won’t work because I’m not currently online. This happens on both my computers (one on a wired network, the other on a wireless) all the time, even though I am, of course, online. And I’ve already gone into the firewall settings to designate both my wireless network and the network associated with my third-party VPN as trusted.

I’m using Avast’s free version, but neither of these features is designated as premium. What gives?

Don’t you mean Avast One Free (Essentials) when you say Avast Free many will think that you actually mean Avast Free, which is different (no firewall nor VPN.

I don’t use Avast One, but from other questions similar to this for Avast Premium (which has a firewall), it is suggested to set the Firewall to Private mode (not Public).

Yes, I’m using the free version of Avast One Essential.
And when I mentioned that I’d designated my networks as trusted, I think that’s the same as setting them to private rather than public.

Has anyone come across this inaccurate “you’re not online” message?

Hopefully someone using Avast One can comment as I can’t confirm that Trusted is the same as setting the Firewall to Private.

Hi, see if this helps: https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/222/ (Changing DNS settings)

I appreciate the suggestion, but I’m hesitant to fiddle with my DNS settings, particularly since that option is offered to address issues different from the one I’m facing.

And that problem persists even after several restarts. Has anyone else experienced this? I’m a little uneasy trusting my system’s safety online to a tool that doesn’t even seem to recognize that I am online.

You’re welcome. IMO, it’s worth a try, but do as you like.

I’d hoped that this issue might be fixed in the next release, but v. 22.1 just installed and, alas, the problem persists.

Turn off both the firewall in Avast One and your VPN.
Can you now connect?
If so, turn the Firewall back on in Avast one.
Can you still connect?
Turn on your VPN.
Can you still connect?

Thanks so much for your reply. It turns out that Avast doesn’t register me as being online when I use my VPN - which is odd because, as I noted, the firewall sees my VPN network and I’ve marked it as trusted.

I appreciate your help!

Try a different location in your VPN.