Firewall Turned Off

Frustrated with Norton. I've had Norton security for months; this is a new issue: I turn on my computer and my personal settings start loading. When desktop appears, there are already programs making internet connections. I pulled up my Norton Security to check it out and my firewall is turned off. What do I have to do to autostart this firewall? It's already supposed to launch with each new restart.

This last time, Symantec was updating itself and displaying a message about "copying" my parental controls list (which I don't even have turned on). Anybody using Norton?