okay, i've reinstalled windows and all of my adapter software. i've verified that my network protocols are correct. i'm running with ie5, which supports ftp. i still can't perform ftp on my system. what am i missing?

Need to know what type of ftp ? - Client ftp ? (You start a shell, type ftp @IP and valid and connect to a server on the internet or elseover ?) - Server ftp ? You make possible anyone connected to your network to connect on your machine for download/exchange files ?

thanks for the quick reply. i'm not sure how to start a shell, actually, so i don't think that's what i'm doing here. i do have file sharing enabled on my system. my limitations that i've noticed thus far are that i cannot do direct file transfers on icq, and i cannot attach files to emails on yahoo or hotmail. also, i cannot upload web pages. this is why i am thinking my ftp's screwed. i'm going to disable file sharing and see if that does anything (it's the only thing i haven't tinkered with throughout this whole process). the msg i've gotten from hotmail on a few occasions when upload fails is that there is a problem with my dns...but my settings are exactly what they are supposed to be, so i don't understand where the conflict is. sorry i couldn't be more specific to your questions.

try getting an ftp client like cute ftp 4.0 from www.download.com and try to connect with that. i also have inet explorer 5 but the ftp is very unstable