Well, I can think of a few possible problems, but the one that would jump at me first...

Do you both have external IPs mapped to your internal computers? In other words, the computer initiating the communication, can it reach the other computer?

I think you both have NAT''d internal IPs (connection sharing?) behind your DSL public IP. You''ll have to manipulate your software or your hardware if you have a hardware firewall/NAT. Usually it''s called "Port Forwarding" or "Virtual Server". You tell the software or hardware running the device to send all traffic on a certain port to an internal IP address. So, if you have your Winsock app, make it pick a static port number for sending/receiving, and then tell your firewalls/routers to forward that port to your internal machines, respectively.

If that''s not the case, then you''ll need to supply a bit more info.

R.

Firewall... the port you are using is probably already being used or is denied.

When you say normal games im assuming your initing the connection to the game server no? If not then ignore this post but like how I run my firewall is all incomeing connections are basically dropped. The only connections that work are when I start the connection. Example is icq i can send a chat invite to someone and itll work fine. They send me a chat request and its blackholed basically.