firewall problems !!

[daves debian <dave_arahan@yahoo.co.uk>]

I have firestarter installed on my system, I logon as root, start the setup 
wizard, simple config, test as root, aok, log out and into a user account, aok

re-boot my machine and root is OK but no matter what I configure, my day to 
day user account cannot access the web, or mail !!!

I thought that default config would set up a firewall for me ??
I have to 
firestarter --stop
to access the web ...

I admit iptables and IP addresses confuses me, 

Can anyone tell me of an idiots firewall ? One even I can set up ?

Dave