You are surely familiar with the Avast antivirus program, what it does, and how it works.
Every computer user knows just how important internet security is and the Avast antivirus is an essential part of it.
But no program is perfect so, naturally, Avast antivirus has its flaws as well. Sometimes, it tends to recognize normal websites as suspicious and unsafe for you to open.
Avast blocking websites can be quite a hassle and on some occasions a serious inconvenience, especially when you are trying to reach a certain website quickly.
Why does Avast antivirus software flags some regular websites as harmful?
The shields and scans used by the Avast program are proactive detection methods.
By trying to provide you with the best possible protection this process can lead to a higher number of false positives detections.
With these false positives detections, Avast marks a file as a threat in the form of:
- Malware – is designed to steal data from your computer system or to use them for malicious purposes.
- PUPs – or Potentially Unwanted Programs are the ones that are stealthy being downloaded alongside various other programs. They behave in such a way that triggers Avast, even though your computer might see them as harmless.
Luckily, there are two ways of handling this problem and the process itself is actually quite simple.
Disable Avast Web Shield
As mentioned, the program at times does not allow a website through the Avast firewall.
The first suggestion on how to bypass Avast site blocking is to disable Avast Web Shield.
In order to accomplish that and prevent Avast from deciding that this site is not safe, just follow these 7 simple steps.
- Start with clicking the Avast icon in the system tray portion of your screen.
- Next, click on Protection.
- In the Protection section, you have 9 different options, find the one that says Core Shield and select it.
- The Core Shiels section contains 4 core defenses options for blocking malware, click on the Web Shield and turn it off.
- At this point, you can choose the duration: 10 minutes, an hour, until the next restart, indefinitely.
- Click OK to confirm the action.
- Finally, the main thing with turning off the Web Shield is to remember to turn it back on once you are done with the website you needed, so your device would stay protected.
All you have to do is to press the ‘ON’ button in the same section of the settings where you pressed the ‘OFF’ button.
Adding Web Exceptions
Let’s be honest, remembering to once again enable the Web Shield as soon as we are done with the particular website is not always the case.
And since Web Shield is such a crucial part of protection and internet security, there is another option to avoid being unprotected.
When it comes to websites you trust completely and visit frequently there is another solution – adding this website to the exclusion list, marking it as safe.
Again, there are 7 easy-to-follow steps you should read in order to conduct this task.
- The first step is to click on the Avast icon and got to Menu.
- Then, go to Settings.
- From the 8 main settings options, click on the Exceptions.
- Click on the Add Exception button.
- An additional section will appear where you can write the website domain of your choosing.
- Confirm the action by clicking again on the Add Exception button. This way the website is added to the Avast exception list.
- The website will be marked safe for any future visits until you change it, that is.
This approach is particularly helpful when it comes to the websites you use on a regular basis since you don’t have to think about turning the Web Shield back on every single time.
By that logic, it is also a much safer option.