Cannot access servers.

I go to multiplayer and click "direct connect." I put in a valid sever address and click "join server." It loads for about 5 minutes then says, "failed to connect to server." This happens even though I have full Internet connection.
1. Whenever I try to join a server, it loads for a while then says "failed to connect to server."
2. Before the 1.6 update, I used to follow the same steps, but instead of loading for 5 minutes then saying, "failed to connect to server" it would load for about 5 seconds and let me into any server.