God, this bit of software can be really hard to install, and when it comes to the Firewall, hard to use as well.
The first step you want to do is make sure that the account that you are using on your computer is set to Administrator (as in the type). If you alternatively set it to Limited then you will not be able to do certain things, like use a wireless connection. Beat this by making sure that you are Admin or that an Admin is logged on.
If you have problems with software not being able to access the Internet, turn off your firewall and any other real-time protection software (this means it scans your computer as soon as it loads up and as long as its running and you're doing something on your computer). PLEASE REMEMBER to turn your firewall back on when you are finished with it! If you leave it open, it is much more likely that hackers can get in.
If that fails, try turning ALL of Norton Internet Security or Anti-Virus off and see what happens.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you only ever have only 1 firewall turned on. If you have Norton, McAfee or another Firewall, please turn off Windows Firewall on Windows XP. If you have more than 1 firewall active, the firewalls will conflict with each other and cause even more problems for you. You can probably find out more information on the Dell Community Fourm that I have posted on.
Sometimes installing programs like Norton can be a real trip to hell and back, and I have tried. When I first installed it in 2004 (NIS 2005), I had a few errors. I reinstalled it, having problems meanwhile, so then I tried again and it worked. I haven't had any problems since, apart from the Firewall playing up, but at one point I had to reinstall Norton.
Now, I installed NIS 2005 way back in 2004, and mid-2005, it was coming close to the end of the Annual Subscription. I also had an error that was pissing me off. So I used one of the programs above, and it cleaned my computer of all traces of Norton. Wiped out completely. And then, when I reinstalled it, the subscription End Date had exceeded to mid-2006! So this is just a bit of advice for you if you want to stay with the old NIS - use this program to reset it, but make sure you still have the CD/installer source!
Thanks to my good friend Jack who asked me about this problem he was having! 