does anyone have any other possible solutions to this? im practically banging my head against the wall on this one.
1) check what you use "miner" login and password, not your account credentials
2) probably you under firewall/proxy with blocked connection to 8332 port.
it was a total doh on my part, i switched to dmz mode and double checked my login and pw, probably a problem with my router. Its working now, thanks for the help