Windows XP... still alien and hostile under the hood

Apparently, a Compaq Presario V6101US can't run MySQL next to both Symantec Internet Security and Windows Personal Firewall. I wrestled with this until 4 a.m. last night, and I'm still puzzled, especially since I know I've got port 3306 open. This stuff runs OUT OF THE BOX on Macintosh OS X 10.3.9 and any Linux distro you care to name!