Hello Bill,
Thank you for the update.
This means that the issue is caused by Avast mistakenly blocking Remote Utilities. In order to resolve the issue, please try adding the following installation folder to the Avast exception list and see if you're able to connect this way with the antivirus software running as usual:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Remote Utilities - Host\Here's a guide from Avast themselves on how you can easily add exceptions.
In addition, please consider
submitting a false positive report to Avast, so that they could remove their false detection. You can submit a false positive report
here.
Hope that helps.