Can't connect to FTP site or Stock trader

Lately I've been unable to connect to FTP sites. I'm using the program FlashFXP. It gives the following messages,
Connecting to "the ftp site"
Connected to "the ftp site"
Connection failed (Connection lost)
I know from checking with others that the ftp site is online. I was able to connect to it about a month ago. I have the settings saved in FlashFXP that I have always used for the site. I also tried connecting to another ftp site with the same results.

The second issue I've been having, is when I try to connect to my online stock account, it's also unable to connect. To connect to the stock account it uses a java based application. After I fill in my username and password and click login, it says Login in progress..., Login in progress...(attempt #2), etc. I was also able to use this program not more then a month ago.

Other then these two things, I haven't noticed any other problems. My internet works without problems, and I can connect to the other computers on my network. I ran spybot and adaware and cleaned up they few things they found. I ran the XP TCP/IP Repair program, and selected to Reset TCP/IP and Repair Winsock. I also ran hijackthis, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary but I can post the log if it would be helpful. I'm not sure what else to try.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

I'm still having these connection problems, but here are a few more things I've tried.

Tried connecting to several other FTP sites through FlashFXP and Internet Explorer, unable to connect to any of them. When I try to connect in Internet Explorer I've gotten 2 different reponses, 1) the window is unresponsive for a bit, then I get the following message, "Windows Cannot access this folder. Make sure you typed the file name correctly and that you have permission to access the folder. Details: The connection with the server was reset" 2)The cannot find server page. Usually I get the first response. Some of the sites I've tried are - ftp://ftp.ea.com/, ftp://ftp.freegames.org/, ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/, ftp://ftp.3com.com/, ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/

However if I open up the command prompt, I can ping these sites, and get a response back.

I'm not sure what else to try. Thanks