You probably chose a few wrong settings when you were blasting through the length dull initialisation. It'll automatically stop you from accessing your network unless you tell it it's safe.
This is assuming you have the same version as me, but this might help:
Load it up, Click the Personal Firewall Tab, then Internet Zone Control, then under the trusted Tab you should run the wizard. Take it step by step and make sure you identify that your network card is trusted.
You need to make sure you set it to prompt you when something accesses the internet. Dont bother setting up any programs to be allowed or denied internet access. Just leave that section and don't configure anything. Then, with all luck, it should prompt you every time a program tries to access the internet. That'll probably occur on and off for a few weeks until you've used everything that accesses the internet, and then you wont see it again until you install a new program that accesses the internet.
If when it pops up saying a proggy is accessing the internet and it gives you the option to "Automatically configure internet acess" then use that one, because that means it recognises the program and knows what settings it needs. For things like MSN messenger, ICQ, download accelerator and internet explorer, choose PERMIT ALL or "Allow" or whatever the option is (you might have to check a checkbox to say do that action all the time - can't remember). Anything from the windows directory (system etc.) do permit all, cos they'll hassle you all the time. Just make sure they arent suspicious like "windows/window32/nastybitchingtrojanvirus.exe". For everything else that you don't recognise, and obviously isn't a windows process, or applications you dont want to access the internet like games you dont multiplay etc. then "block all" those, and they'll stop hassling you.
Hope that helps.
