Firewalled local proxy server for a single user?

[enharmonix]

This is very bizarre problem w/ XP Home & Firefox. This post was going
to be longer, but it's probably easier to just ask me if you need more
info.

I use dial-up and recently tightened security on local user accounts,
closed a bunch of shares and stopped potentially risky services (mostly
related to remoting) that we don't use because my computer started
acting funny (it turned out to be security problems involving ISP
software and McAfee VirusScan - I've since replaced McAfee w/ Symantec
and those problems stopped). However, since doing this, Mozilla
Firefox no longer works for me when configured to use my local proxy
server (just a web accelerator app). I've compared settings, and
everybody seems to be set up the same. If I log on to another user
account, use a different browser (i.e., IE), or bypass the proxy, I can
connect w/o any problems, but the combination my acct. + Mozilla +
proxy and my browser reports the proxy is refusing connections. I
checked the firewall log and its not even dropped packets: any OPEN
command is immediately followed by a CLOSE.

Any ideas? It's driving me crazy! Thanks in advance.

 

[D. C.]

I am still interested in a proper solution. I managed to get around
the problem by recreating my user account. I moved everything but my
Internet/networking settings (used system defaults) and my account's
temporary files. That fixed it.

If anybody knows what causes this kind of behavior, I'm still very
interested in finding out.