Firewall

ok, I have a fire wall... yeah... and I can only connect to the internet when its not on.. which is a waste... so whats wrong here?

 

Sounds just like it's not configured properly. Which one do you have? If you connect to the internet first and then fire up the firewall what happens? Are you immediately disconnected? Any error messages popping up? What OS do you have? What kind of internet connection, dial up, high speed? Let us know please.

 

And is it a hardware or a software firewall?

 

Without the benefit of the answers to the above questions, I'd suggest a couple of possible solutions. First, have you granted your browser ( IE or whatever ) access in the Programs control? Also, depending on your OS, you may need to grant access to Windows Explorer and Generic Host Process.

Next, you want to make certain your DNS and DHCP servers are in the trusted zone of your Zones panel. Does that help?

 

Depending on your firewall, there are numerous firewall forums out there dedicated to helping set them up.

I use Kerio 2.1.5, which is an old rules based firewall but is a popular version that takes a little work but is pretty well bulletproof and has a great forum at this link.

I am not suggesting you use Kerio instead of your present one but just showing some possible ways to work through your problem.