why can't I add a new account (gmail) or iCloud to ical?

ever since update to 10.8 I can't add any calendar account to iCal (caldav). I have tried adding a google calendar to the account list and it always times out. I can't even add an iCloud account.

Is there a fix to this? has anyone else experienced this? THis is with our macbook and our iMac. Both were upgraded and both won't add new accounts to iCal

please help, I am beyond frustration that I won't buy another apple product if they don't fix this.