MSCRM Error: "The specified Microsoft CRM Server is not responding."

I recently installed Microsoft CRM Server in a lab environment. The install went smoothly.. every test passed successfully. But when I loaded up the Deployment Manager, I kept getting the error:

The specified Microsoft CRM Server is not responding. This might happen if it is currently unavailable or is not a Microsoft CRM server. For more information contact your system administrator.

Uninstalling/reinstalling didn't help. I researched a little and found that perhaps MSCRM didn't like the fact that I didn't add the server alias "mscrm" to DNS. I also saw that some people were able to log in to MSCRM from any computer other than the server itself. I decided to add a CNAME alias to the DNS that points to my computer's name and try to login from a different server. It was then that I noticed I couldn't reach my CRM server at all. I checked and sure enough, even though network settings didn't a lock, my firewall was on. I would imagine that since I tried logging in locally that a firewall wouldn't care but apparently it did. I turned off the built-in Windows firewall and was instantly able to login to the CRM server.

Google shows that many people have this problem, hopefully, this post may help you or someone you know ;)

And now to go and play with this good-lookin CRM software...