I've just installed Avast! Internet Security, after that Poser 8 has started behaving very odd. If I uninstall Avast!, it works normally again. Reinstalling it  causes the problems to reappear. 

For example, I load a figure, and it appears to load (Poser says "Loading"), and the figure name shows up on top of the Preview window.  But the figure itself just doesn't show up - the  Preview windows remains empty. I can even render the figure, and Poser does all that it normally does when rendering, but the Render windows also remains empty.
 
If I choose File>New, the Preview window goes black, and so does the light controls. I can get the light back in the light controls manually, but the Preview window remains black.  

I've tried to disable all the Avast shields and the firewall completely, but the problem remains the same.

Have anyone else experienced this?

No. Did you change something else at the same time?
 

Quote - No. Did you change something else at the same time?
 

No. Are you using AIS yourself, if so, which version? I'm using
5.0.418.

Sorry, I'm only using the free version of Avast.  But if poser8 used to work, and now it doesn't, it means the latest installed program is a problem.

Yea, I can't see what else it should be, either. But I was mostly interested in whether it's a general problem, or if it's only my system that's affected. I guess I have to contact Avast to see what they say.

Thanks...

you've allowed the poser.exe / FFRender.exe through the firewall part on 127.0.0.1 ?

Quote - you've allowed the poser.exe / FFRender.exe through the firewall part on 127.0.0.1 ?

The problems are there even if I turn the firewall off completely, so I don't think that's the problem. It doesn't make sense either (at least not to me) that this could cause problems of this kind.

and that won't work ;)
trust me. just turning off a firewall is no guarentee it's off. I've seen the same issue with Zonealarm - still blocking ports after it's shut off.

make sure the traffic's allowed through..

I have no problems with Avast and Poser 8. I'm still using Avast 4.8 though.

 I uninstalled Avast! for exactly the same reason.

Quote - you've allowed the poser.exe / FFRender.exe through the firewall part on 127.0.0.1 ?

Well I've tried that now, didn't help,. unfortunately...

Quote -  I uninstalled Avast! for exactly the same reason.

OK, so it seems to be a general problem with the program. I'll try to contact them to see if there is a solution.

Thanks!

Just see if you can find 4.8 and install it instead. It's not harming Poser 8 whatsoever.

I am using a paid version of Avast and have no problems with poser at all. Running the newest version as well.

Avast has fixed the problem now.