Avast does a good job protecting your data. Sometimes even too good – the antivirus may keep you from browsing trusted websites. The issue is quite common and often comes from a program bug. Below are three major reasons why Avast suddenly starts blocking URLs.
Avast Real Site
Previously known as Secure DNS, the Real Site feature checks website certificates for authenticity. If they’re expired or the website doesn’t have any, Avast keeps you from accessing it. Overall, Real Site is a handy feature unless it gets broken, blocking all websites. Let’s turn it off and see if anything changes. For this, you need to poke around the antivirus settings:
– Find the antivirus icon in the system tray and double-click on it to launch the main window. You’re looking for the Protection tab in the left column.
– Once you open it, a menu will appear where you need to click on the Real Site icon. You’ll see a switch in the middle – turn it off.
After that, launch the browser and check if it loads pages. If it does, problem solved. If not, then move on to other solutions.
Browser extensions
One of the browser extensions may conflict with Avast, blocking websites you could easily access previously. In this case, the only option is to temporarily disable extensions. Here’s how you do this in Google Chrome:
– Click the button with three dots in the upper-right corner. You’ll see a menu where you need to open the More Tools tab and click on Extensions.
– In Extensions, turn off the switches under each extension.
Restart the browser and check if websites are now accessible. If they are, then start turning the extensions on one by one to find which one causes the problem. If they aren’t, there’s one more solution you can try.
H2: Exceptions
Avast may see your web browser as a potential threat. To solve this problem, you need to whitelist the browser. Do the following:
– Launch Avast and open the program settings (a gear icon in the upper-right corner). In the General tab, proceed to Exceptions.
– Click Add Exception and type the path to the browser directory. If you don’t know where it is, right-click on the browser shortcut and go to Properties. Then click on File location. This will take you to the right directory.
– Type the path and click the Add button. Then restart the browser and see if the problem’s gone.
H2: Bottom line
These were the major steps to take if Avast blocks access to websites in the browser. There are several ways to deal with the issue. Each one tackles a specific feature or bug in the antivirus, so it’s best to try all of them, as the problem may be tricky to determine. Each solution comes with a detailed guide to make sure you have no questions in the process.