Turn off the firewall dammit!
Or allow pings, open ports 2300-2400 and 47624, and give the directplay helper the appropriate permissions as well as OP.
And for the love of God do not run Zonealarm and the Windows firewall simultaneously...
edit: sorry if I was short, we just get this a lot... its not as simple as just setting your firewall to allow OP access, and even if you do get your firewall set properly it can only introduce lag in multiplayer play and increase the likelyhood of dropping from missions and bugging things up in general...
Jebus bonk, you need a hug...
And a ukraining prostitute...
I'll mail one to you immediatealy after our hug...
I'm running McAfee firewall etc etc, I'm not seeing an option to simply shut the firewall down, and am unsure as to how to open up those ports- what do I put for the program , and can I open all those ports in one port configuration panel?
These firewalls are spiffy- only partially work, and stop you from doing anything cool on the internet.
<hugs bonk>
<strokes bonk's hair>
It's ok Bonk, I'm here for you...