strange behaviors with media programs

[Paul S]

I'm having strange problems with media programs after setting up a 
firewall with guarddog.  The media programs won't open. The splash 
screen pops up, but the window never loads for gxine, juk, noatun.  For 
amarok, the window opens, but the mousy busy cursor keeps spinning as 
though it's trying to load something.  I have to kill it to get it to 
stop.  Kaffeine starts but when I try to change the settings for xine, 
it freezes and the xine settings menu never opens.

I think it's firewall related, because as I try different settings in 
the firewall, when I hit "apply" all the media programs pop open 
instantly and there's a blast of sound from the speakers which seems to 
be the sum of all the start up sounds.

What does a firewall have to do with media programs and what settings do 
I need to prevent this inteference?

TIA