I am running Norton Internet Security Personal Firewall (2004). It is apparently working because I am constantly pinged with intrusion notices. I cannot surf for more than 10-15 minutes without being interupted by my firewall.
I have turned off the notification function. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program. I cannot stop the notifications. I think its great my firewall is working. I want it to work in the background.

I also cannot downloan anything unless I disable the firewall.

Anyone know anything about how to fix this?

Yes, I've had this problem as well, only with an earlier version of NIS. The ping alerts are from remote machines that are looking for Trojan-type vulnerabilities. The alerts can occur quite frequently. In my version of NIS, there's a configuration setting for apparently turning off these alerts but it doesn't work. What I did find that helped, though, was blocking Port 135. Do a search for this at Symantec's site and you'll get instructions as to how precisely to do it. First, though, run the online firewall and a/v check at Symantec's site. Believe me, it can show up things you've probably not closed off properly. In the results, ask for details to be shown. I found that closing off Port 135 helped but didn't totally stop the alerts.

As for downloads, whilst there are a few websites on the Internet that require the firewall to be disabled, normally you shouldn't need to disable your firewall. It's highly risky. The need to do so might indicate a not-so-appropriate cookie or Java or Active-X setting.

Another thing you might think about doing is putting a linksys router between your DSL/Cable modem and your computer. While this router is supposed to be used for having multiple computers access the internet, they provide their own firewall. They are pretty inexpensive now, but they will stop all that pinging which are really only machines with worm infections looking for open ports. These pings can annoy to distraction. With your software firewall you will never really be able to stop these interruptions.