Is Avast blocking your Internet access? How to stop Avast from blocking websites and internet access?
Avast blocking internet is a common question asked by Avast users online. Usually, antivirus software like Avast blocks the websites if it detects anything malicious. If a specific website has a history or phishing or has been blacklisted by most of the antivirus, the Avast won’t open the website.
But what if Avast starts blocking the safe websites that you used to access? What to do if the Avast is blocking the Internet or websites? In this guide, we’ll find the best possible solutions for these answers.
Also Read: How to Turn Off Avast Temporarily in Windows 10/8/7?
Why is Avast Blocking Every Website?
The message contains ‘Avast web shield has blocked access to this page because the following certificate is invalid.’
It happens because of the low application occurrence within the Avast community. Therefore, Avast can’t comprehend whether the program is safe or not.
Avast detects potentially unwanted programs, which are required in some cases. However, it also detects threat affecting the program. In this process, Avast identifies websites as harmful and blocks them.
Avast also blocks games, online services and launcher tools (which are often being updated to protect your PC against any threats). It can be annoying for a user, but this “false detection” only lasts for a few hours.
When Avast blocks something, you always get a pop-up notification ‘threats blocked’ on your screen.
5 Ways to Stop Avast From Blocking Websites & Internet Access
You may come across this problem of Avast blocking complete Internet access to the user is not able to visit any website. You can always stop Avast from blocking websites.
Try out all these methods one-by-one to fix the problem -
1. Update to Latest Version of Avast Antivirus
You need to ensure that Avast is properly updated. For every instance of Avast blocking internet, Windows 10 users must check for its updates.
Here’s how you do it:
- Open Avast on your Windows 10
- Click on the Settings menu tab
- Go to ‘ Update ’ on the left pane and click on it
You can also update Avast in two steps –
- Right-click on the Avast icon on your taskbar
- Go to Update option from the drop-down menu, and click on Program
Once you’ve updated Avast antivirus, you can check the access to blocked websites. If the problem isn’t solved, try out the other methods presented below.
2. Repair Avast Installation Program
For Windows 10, Avast blocking websites can be fixed by repairing the security program itself. You can configure Avast installation and stop it from blocking internet access on Windows 10.
To repair the installation for Avast program (for Windows 10),
- Log in to your Windows 10 with the administrator account
- Ensure no other antivirus software is running on your PC
- Right-click on Start menu
- Click on Apps and Features
- In the Apps and Features window, select Avast from the list of apps (programs)
- Select the Avast program and click on Modify
- You’ll see a User Access Control prompt
- Click on Yes to launch Avast Setup wizard
- Click on ‘ Repair ’ in the wizard window
- Wait for a while as the setup repairs Avast installation
- Once the repair finishes, click on ‘Done ’
You’ve successfully repaired Avast installation, and it could’ve solved the internet blocking issues.
3. Disable Avast Webshield and HTTPS scanning
If Avast blocks websites notwithstanding, you need to disable some of its protection protocols.
You can turn off the HTTPS scanning and disable Avast web shield to see if it solves the problem,
- Open Avast on Windows 10
- Go to the Avast dashboard
- Click on Settings (present on the left sidebar)
- Toggle to Active Protection
- Next, to Web Shield , you’ll see a tab that says ‘ Customize ’
- Click on it
- Uncheck the option – Enable HTTPS scanning
This way, you disable the HTTPS scanning process and allow users to access the internet without Avast’s interference.
4. Modify Avast Active Protection to Exclude URLs
If Avast is blocking any website in particular, you can gain access to it by excluding it from the blacklist.
Inthe latest versions, Avast offers a whitelist. You can enter file paths, URLs, and specific applications into this list, and exclude it from being scanned by Avast.
To exclude URLs from Avast protection,
- Open Avast on your Windows 10 system
- Go to Avast Dashboard
- Select the Settings tabs
- Click on General
- Find the tab called “ Exclusions ”
- Under this tab, click on a sub-tab called ‘ URLs ’
- Enter the links of blocked websites including the extensions (http(s)://)
- Click on Add to save the list of URLs
Go back to your browser and try accessing those URLs.
5. Temporarily Turn Off Avast Protection
You can also put Avast on snooze. Follow these simple steps to disable Avast temporarily and see if you can access websites smoothly.
- Go to Windows 10 taskbar
- Click on Notifications area
- Right-click on Avast antivirus icon
- Go to Avast Shield Control option from the dropdown menu
- Select from the options to temporarily disable Avast
- This action opens the Avast security suite
- Click on Yes to confirm the temporary disabling
You’ve disabled Avast, so you can try revisiting the blocked websites to see if this made any difference.
The methods presented above can stop Avast from blocking websites on Windows 10.
However, some websites will always be harmful and can create risk for your computer. As a result, Avast protects your data from cyber attacks by blocking such websites.
You are unable to access these websites even after trying out the above ways. And, it is recommended that you shouldn’t access them if you value the data stored in your computer.
Related Reading: