I don't have a whole lot to suggest, but since no one else has offered anything yet, I'll give it a shot.
First, the fact that you can access the Internet-at-large and that you can access the player via HTTP would tend to indicate that your networking (including the DHCP) is set up correctly. To doublecheck, get to a command prompt (XTerm, KTerm, GTerm, rxvt, etc.) and run ``ifconfig -a'' and make sure that you see an appropriate IP address configured on your ethernet interface.
Beyond this, I'm not sure at all what you can do. Since you can connect via HTTP, that means that you have network connectivity. Not being able to connect via FTP makes no sense. (MLord, if you're reading, do you have any ideas about this?) Is your empeg on the same network as your workstation?
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Bitt Faulk