Please read and try to help me

[sublime]

First of all, this may be a good thing, with hackers and all, but I want people to be
able to connect to my computer. I cannot upload to people on napster, nobody
can connect to my FTP server when I run one (just to see if people can, I don't
always run one). When I run a half-life server also. Anything I try people cannot
connect. They can ping it fine, but no connection can be established. I called my
ISP and they said just to make sure I don't have a firewall running. I turn it off when
I tried all this so that wasn't the problem. So me and my friend did this :
We both pinged eachothers computers, did traceroute's, and they were both fine.
But when we tried to start a file transfer on ICQ, AIM, FTP, or anything else, it did not work. It wouldn't connect.
I don't use any other programs that would block specific ports or anything. Can you
give me any suggestions ??

[sublime]

noone wants to help, or shed some light down on me.. c'mon!!!

[@home cable man]

does your isp have a firewall? do they allow you to share big files? do they allow you to run a server???

[sublime]

yes, i've done it before and used to do it all the time. my cousin is on the same isp, same exact computer, he lives like a half mile away, and he can do all the things i have said i cannot. so it has to be something on my end. and i have formatted clean and still no go.