I'm out of ideas. If you got that IP address by DHCP (rather than by manually putting it into netcardconfig ot a similar technique) then I would think the interface has to be working, Why it isn't stumps me. I'll back off and hope others join in the conversation. Plaes post back with the solution when you learn it.

Do take care and put limited trust in the software firewall. I run (non-Microsoft) firewall software on all of my systems too, even with a router. But software alone isn't a strong defense. Too much of the stack and system stuff is exposed to exploits before the software comes into play.