Upload image problem

spent the past couple of hours searching for the answer on all the various threads, and found more questions like this, but no real answers…
Here is my problem, on my working WP install here…
http://www.cwcnews.net
Error Says!
(/home/cwcnews/public_html/wp-content ) doesn’t appear to be writable by WordPress. Check the permissions on the directory and for typos.
I’ve set it the 777, 755, 766, in WS-FTP, my control panel manager, and by hand…and still nothing will let the upload function work.
I notice that the host says they’re running 4.3.8 php, but a script run says its php 5.0.1. Could this be a problem?
Here’s the weird thing…the above WP is running on my colleges new student server…however, I’m running my own WP install on my own website on Hostrocket.com servers, and the upload function works FINE on that server.
Here is that install…
http://www.survivalring.org/wordpress
Note that the first one is running in the root directory of the cwcnews.net site, while the second is running in its own WP directory. I saw references to folders, so maybe that’s part of it?
Any ideas, suggestions…or HELP!!!?
Thanks all, for making such a great tool possible, and for providing such a wonderful feedback system here…
Rich