After troubleshooting and now being fairly certain that Norton's firewall is causing almost everything on my computer to not be able to access the internet, I have looked around for any settings I could change. I tried a few, but my programs still have trouble connecting to the internet.
Is there a way to make the firewall less aggressive in blocking all my applications? (besides obviously turning it off completely)
I literally can't do anything except browse the internet or update windows. I can't activate windows over the internet and I can't run installers that require the installer to download files from the internet without always being given an internet connection error.
Hi DOOMSPECTRE,
In its default settings the Norton Smart Firewall will not cause the sorts of problems you appear to be having. Please make sure that Automatic Program Control is turned on and that the firewall settings are returned to their defaults. You can do this by using the Firewall Reset option in the Firewall Advanced Settings.
Resetting the firewall appears to have solved all my problems. Thanks!
Hmm, those issues arose directly after installing Norton. I never really thought resetting it would fix it.
HI DOOMSPECTRE,
You're welcome. Glad to hear that fixed it. Evidently, something had gotten misconfigured. Anyway, this is a good example of why you should always try the easy stuff first. 
Firewall only becomes agressive when you made some advanced settings inside it. if you are using it on Default settings, then it wont gonna trouble much. I have seen a similar thread asking about the same issue. If it become agressive, it cannot allow you to do anything in your computer. Resetting Firewall is the only otpion left there.