You can follow the instructions on this page to verify if Flash has been installed correctly and troubleshoot the installation: Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems.

I've been to this page numerous times and followed all instructions...I get a sucessfully installed every time but then it can't detect it, neither can mozilla and it doesn't work.

Try downloading and installing this Flash installer:

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/licensing/win/install_flash_player_11_plugin_32bit.exe .

There are two versions of the flash player, one that is ActiveX, and is only for Internet Explorer, and the other that is for nearly every other browser. I gave you a link to the offline installer for the newest version of flash, which is more reliable than Adobe's downloader.

I've got the right version...and my system is running 64bit not 32

Ah, I think that is your problem. You have 64 bit Windows, but you are running 32 bit Firefox. If you install the 64 bit plugin, it will only run in 64 bit Firefox, not 32 bit. Did you install the 32 bit flash I linked above? x64 Firefox is not officially supported by Mozilla yet (there is a nightly that has it, but it is still in development), so we recommend that you continue to use 32 bit Firefox and plugins until it is officially released.

So, if you download the link I gave, so long as you have x86 Firefox (not a nightly, which you don't have), it should work. The whole x64 and x86 thing can be confusing with plugins.