definitely can ping stratum.btcguild.com.

PING stratum.btcguild.com (198.245.63.145): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 198.245.63.145: seq=0 ttl=51 time=43.022 ms
64 bytes from 198.245.63.145: seq=1 ttl=51 time=52.764 ms
64 bytes from 198.245.63.145: seq=2 ttl=51 time=50.815 ms
64 bytes from 198.245.63.145: seq=3 ttl=51 time=42.222 ms
64 bytes from 198.245.63.145: seq=4 ttl=51 time=46.121 ms

--- stratum.btcguild.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 42.222/46.988/52.764 ms

I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuBvGUT6VM8

and with the exception of his IP address, I matched it setting for setting.

the miner sees the pool. the pool sees the miner. but there is no mining going on.

I can watch the traffic (on the firewall) between the miner and the pool.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/36403901-73cb-4463-be3c-5e8a223ffa15/d231c7c1406d81a3aad6e0ab9fe965f7/res/e35fc4d9-733e-4c3e-8105-bba11b932356/skitch.png?resizeSmall&width=832

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/b84389f4-ea35-45d9-aa24-156f68c858ea/f8404838e63714d99875d801ced305fe/res/abc2a7a7-deb5-4bc4-badf-4b51f2d3c521/skitch.png?resizeSmall&width=832

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/c510e3b8-a082-4b43-a0a0-d48ea08dac85/70e2fb08bc5ea7b77769b475f01f8046/res/b4189898-a90b-4eaf-9f09-f2ce033addf7/skitch.png?resizeSmall&width=832