A Firewall?

[NVM]

I'm not a computer genius and lately I've been having issues connecting using programs like AIM and MSN. I made this walkthrough earlier about the problem:

So I have no MSN or AIM right now.
Why?
Because it thinks I'm not connected to the internet.
Let's start with MSN:
(I have a account and connected)
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/2043/loggedinoj7.png
(But when I try MSN messenger:
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/7002/nopeff5.png
Let's hit Troubleshoot:
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/8103/firewallznw2.png
A Firewall, wtf?
Let's hit repair: oh so IE doesn't know I have internet
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/3430/iexvb9.png
Tried fixing that with no results(to make it recognize my internet) let try AIM:
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4143/aimrv7.png



Well that cool and why I have no type of messenger right now.
I do have a family computer so who knows what was screwed with.
Someone help fix my problem if you have clue what the problem is, I don't.

[CharlieH]

What firewall are you using?

First, you could try turning your firewall off completly for a couple of minutes, and try connecting then. If that works, then you know it definatly is your firewall. It's a good possibility that the firewall has gone into "lockdown" mode. Why it would have done that though, i have no idea.

Are you behind a router?

[opn4bzns]

The only thing that stands out is Norton, which is a horribly bloated program. Try completely disabling it and trying to connect to msn again. Unfortunately I've found msn to be a bit of a pain for no apparent reason, so you can always use Web Messenger (http://webmessenger.msn.com/) or Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im/) as a substitute while you fix it.

[Beefynick]

You may have Windows firewall enabled in which I would disable it. It sounds like you might be behind a NAT firewall (which is a hardware firewall in your router) in which you would have to configure that. I would fist start with disabling the Windows Firewall first.

[NVM]

You may have Windows firewall enabled in which I would disable it. It sounds like you might be behind a NAT firewall (which is a hardware firewall in your router) in which you would have to configure that. I would fist start with disabling the Windows Firewall first.

Windows Firewall was already disabled when I checked.

[carter]

open up your command prompt
start -> run> cmd
and type "ping google.com"
if it says timed out(or any other failure) t than you should go, unplug your router or modem, wait 5 minutes, then plug them back in.

[suicidalme]

hmm double check internet explorers offline setting, but it looks like these programs have either been blocked by a software firewall or hardware firewall.

check the blocked programs on your antivirus/firewall