the 7100t's firewall settings are in the "Settings>Options" menu... (i use the orange theme)
scroll down to the entry "Firewall" and select "Change Option" and select "Disabled"
im not a BB master, but i believe i remember reading that some BES servers/administrators disable the ability to turn off the firewall for employees, so you might not be able to if that situation applies to you.
and dont let the hourglass thing sweat ya.. it does that. even as awesome as these little pieces of plastic are, they have the processing speed of TI-83... remember how long it took to do linear regressions on 15 varible cartisian chart?
when i reinstalled the OS the first time, i thought i broke it cause the hourglass kept spinning for almost half an hour... just put it down for an hour.
a watched Blackberry never reboots.