Exclamation mark on WLM connection status computer side

Hello,
I am running XP with windows firewall, I can sign in to WLM with no problem
but cannot contact any contacts or send emails. It say's there offline and
tells them I am offline. I can receive emails and there is no error code, but
when I go to connections in wlm there is an exclamation mark on connection
status on the computer side. I changed the settings through my firewall,
explorer and wlm with no luck. Thank you