ubuntu software repositories aren't working
 

every time i try to update or open synaptic package manager i get an error saying that it failed to connect or something also the update notifier will pop up with errors and there is an ugly red triangle icon with a ! inside of it how do i fix the repositories so they can connect to the server again

screenshots of the error message coming soon

In the past with Ubuntu, I found the default repositories would do that from time to time as the repositories were in a far away land and often a connection could not be established within the proper time frame. Changing them to mirrors closer to home did the trick.

how do i know which mirrors to select, heck how do i change the mirrors

the sudo apt-get commands work but nothing comes up in synaptic or the update manager

Follow link provided by Brains, to find mirror list.

You can add or remove mirror entry in /etc/apt/sources.list file.

Let's say you're from Bosnia. Go to the page and click on one of the three types of mirrors available from one outfit in Bosnia, they are, http, ftp, and rsync. Http is my preference as they seem to be faster. So click on the http link and you will be taken to this site: http://archive.ubuntu.com.ba/ubuntu/. Put thar URL in place of the default site in your /etc/apt/sources.list as shown in the example below:
You will notice my sources.list example above is for Debian testing and I just changed a couple lines to a Ubuntu mirror, of course this won't work but it should give you insight on how to change to better mirror, the section of the line highlighted in blue is the only part you need to change.
Also, do a search in synaptic for apt, there are packages available that can run speed tests on these sites if you want to find the fastest mirror in your area.

just tried the update again and i got this error message that has a red circle with a white horizontal line in the middle and the title text says "could not download all repository indexes" and the rest of the message says the following

Had to dig into memory.
Others that had similar situations in the past, being able to connect to the net through one application and not the other, like being able to surf with the browser but not connect to repository mirrors usually had corrupt yum configuration, or home network/router settings changed. The reason I say yum is because this was usually associated with Fedora.
Did you play with firewall settings recently?
Or if on a network or behind a router, something may have been altered from power outage or similar.
IPV6 is also poking at me.

These are some of the areas to look at.

well now that you mention it there was a power outage a few weeks ago since that hurricane that developed in the gulf the power went out and apparently i mighthave been doing some updates so that might be the problem

i also tried doing a package repair in recovery mode it got the same error

"Gutsy" is ubuntu 7.10

I believe support has been dropped, because it is so old.

If you go here (I trimmed your earlier link) you can see the distros currently "supported" and the date/time they were last updated.

then what do you suggest i should do to solve this problem i haven't been able to use the package manager for more that a couple months and i don't want to do a clean install

A clean install of the current release (10.04) is your easiest, cleanest option.

If you don't want to do that for whatever reason, you can do a messy, multi-step "EOL upgrade": https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

Ubuntu is a fast-moving distro; if you don't stay on top of upgrades, you'll get left behind. You might want to stick with the Long Term Support releases (like 10.04, which will be supported through April 2013).

well since there isn't anything else available i should now just do a clean install i need to get my data backed up first this will take a while

Correct. "Gutsy" is ubuntu 7.10 and is no longer supported: Back up your data. Make a clean install.
"Upgrades" are unlikely to work as you are so far behind the 'buntu releases.

Then restore your data from the backup.

actually i was running 10.04 lucid lynx but what i don't understand is that the code box came back out at me as gutsy is this maybe because that i refused to update it when i first installed it or was this the result of some freak accident

hey how do you upgrade a version of ubuntu without having to use a cd (or live usb its pretty much the same)

like say i have a friend who is still using karmik koala but wants to upgrade to lucid lynx without having to use another cd from the web site