YOU won't update my 8.1 install

Hello, I recently installed SuSE 8.1 on a notebook here in my office. Overall I've been happy with it. Even upgraded a 7.3 machine here and it seems to be working well! Granted, not a lot of stuff on it , but still. However, I've been having problems connecting to any of the FTP servers listed in YOU. I keep getting a "initialization failed" error message and to try again later or try another FTP/HTTP server. Has anyone else received this message? Is there anything different from YOU in 7.3 that would require any tweaking on our firewall? Anything else I could be trying on my side? Any info is appreciated. Thanks. - Greg