thanks for the input people it is appreciated

my system is as follows cable modem 1/2 Meg service with a unex router ,which has it's own firewall (web configured) but is not used . this links a PC(offsprings choice ) and my Mac to the outside world
I recently (3months )updated to OSX from 9 where i never had a problem with my norton personal firewall. it worked period.
i only seem to have had any bother since I put norton P F into OSX . maybe i'll deinstall norton and see how i get on as it is being a pain. For some reason i can't even access the web at the moment without disabling the firewall

i definitely need to learn a bit more about what i'm doing although I seem to have done ok before. Maybe there is too much to play with and i'm getting badly wrong