Itunes, outlook can't get internet, firefox can?

[efe78]

I hope someone can give me a little guidance.  I have itunes, outlook and quicken on my computer, but none of these programs can access the internet.  Everytime I try, they freeze and must be shut down through the task manager.

Firefox, Spybot and ad-aware, as well as my virus protector are able to access the internet and get updates fine.  I've checked my firewall settings, and all of the above programs are permitted to access the internet, so i don't think that's the problem.  I don't have any spyware according to spybot and ad-aware, so i'm at a loss.  

I don't know for sure, but i think that the problem may have started around the time i downloaded Windows media player 11.  Does anyone have any thoughts about what could be doing this?  I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[dl65]

 efe78 ..... Welcome to Computer Hope ......

How about some info on the machine ?
Make and model ?
Operating system ?      Guessing Win XP pro but not certain.
How do you connect to the net ..... dial-up , DSL or cable ?
You have no problem connecting is that correct ?
Your browser opens just fine for you ?
Were the three programs you mentioned all working fine ?
You say this all started when you install WMP 11 ...is that correct ?
Does WMP 11 work ok ?
Have you tried turning off your firewall and then try to open say Outlook as a test ?

Please get back with the answers.

dl65  

[efe78]

Ok, so I should have given more details.  Thanks to those who wanted to help.  Here are a few more details.

I am running XP on a five year old Sony PCV-RX series.  Itīs old, but still functions well enough.  However, of late, Iīve been having a lot trouble with some programs.  I have itunes 7.0.2, outlook and quicken installed, all of which canīt access the internet.  Iīm connected to the internet cable, so my connection is not the problem.  

I can access the internet with many other programs (spybot, ad aware, AVG virus, etc, etc) but these three programs in particular donīt do anything.  Rather, they freeze when I have them do anything internet related (they work fine if I donīt try to access).  

I turned off my firewall a few days ago, and bam-o, I was on--full access with all of the above programs.   I immediately turned Zone Alarm back on, and everything still worked fine.  Yesterday, I turned the computer back on, and found that those same three programs can once again no longer go online.  Iīve tried to replicate the firewall thing i did last time, and nothing has worked.  

The only variable that is different is that maybe I have some program load on start up that Iīm not aware of that is conflicting with the firewall.  I have authorized zone alarm to allow these programs access, so iīm back to being clueless.  Please help.