Minecraft Server timeout?

So my friend is at my house and we want to play some freakin Minecraft but we can't. I kept getting the "java.net.connectexpection: no further information" error (I think that's what it was). I'm pretty good with computers and I tried a few things, including turning off Windows Firewall, going in the MC launcher to use version 1.6.4, going into System32 and deleting anything in the hosts file that says Minecraft (there wasn't anything but still), and stuff like that. Still, it doesn't work. I know millions of people still play this game and my friend can do this at his house, without any tweaking. I've got TWC and he's Century link but that's the only difference besides speed.