I never summon so I'm definitely not an expert, but I don't think anything you do in an area can affect summoning in other areas.
Ringing the bell will just send Hawkwood home, you could still summon human players for the boss. Your other areas are fine.
Hawkwood was blocking summons, go back and it should be fine.
Also, check near the bonfire as well as right near the fog gate for summon signs.;
I'll give this a try. I tried to summon people yesterday. I am able to be summoned into people's games, but I don't see any summon signs in my game. They're not appearing at the bonfire or at the fog gate. I'm not soft-banned either and only like SL 65. I'm not sure what's up.
Edit: Got 'em finally. Summon signs were really rare for me, but I found one guy to help out.