NIS 2006 blocking Firefox and IE

Hello forum. I'm having a problem with Norton Internet Security 2006, in that I'm only able to browse if I disable NIS. I use Firefox but am also unable to browse with IE. In addition, I can't access the online music store via my media player with NIS enabled. Running Live Update with NIS enabled just hangs, so it seems that my NIS is even blocking itself.

I first noticed the problem today after removing an outdated driver for my video card. Removing the driver required a restart. It's been wonky ever since.

Things I've tried:
*Confirmed that Firefox is in my list of allowed programs in Norton.
*Unchecked an advanced Norton firewall rule that blocked access to secure sites.
*confirmed that all windows security updates have been installed (with the exception of one for Outlook Express as I don't have it installed, and the genuine advantage nonsense, because I know my copy of windows is genuine (How many times does windows need to confirm the authenticity of my OS anyway?).

Buggy behavior before today: Over the last few weeks, I've been getting a message that Norton protection center has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.

Note: Reading threads in various forums has made me aware that there are better individual products out there for all of the functions that NIS allegedly provides. I'll look into them, but am looking for a fix at this time, not a new purchase. Thanks for your help

System details:
Dell Dimension 8250, Pentium 4 CPU, 2.8 GHz
running Windows XP, Home edition. Version 2002, SP2
Firefox version 5.0