Cannot login waiting to retry (30s)..

Hi there, i hope you can help

I am attempting to use Smartftp for uni work and personal stuff, but EVERY ftp location i try seems to end up giving me that error:

Cannot login waiting to retry (30s)..

i've tried the uni address and a friends website so i can get some images, but none of them conenct. i know the details are right as my friend can access it fine. any ideas?

i have firewall but ive allowed smartftp to have access thru it

i was hoping this would be a known prob and there'd be a simple fix, but i didnt see any other posts with this on so perhaps not...

What firewall have you? some firewalls don't allows a correct operation of smartftp. 1 that is checked working is Tiny Personal Firewall 5.00.1218