Problem with Connecting to games on 1 PC but not another PC

[Scribble[SFD]]

I got Multiwinia for my daugther, but if I host the game on my PC, her laptop computer can't join my higher end PC desktop.

However, if the laptop hosts the game, my desktop can connect to the laptop.

This doesn't make much sense to me, but if anyone has some idea, please let me know.

Desktop:
Intel Core2 Quad Q8200
Vista 32

Laptop:
Celeron
Vista 32

Given the difference in power and that the laptop can barely run it, I would much rather host the games on my desktop PC.

I am using a router, but other games work fine even over Steam which I am also using (Multiwinia Steam version 1.3). For example, I play Quake 1 Co-op fine hosting both ways.

Basically, if my desktop hosts and the laptop tries to join, then it just says: "Attempt 1..2...3....4...5....6..7...." on forever. If the laptop hosts, and my desktop joins, then it goes right into handshaking.

Any help please?

UPDATE: I got it to work with my desktop Hosting. I went into settings, other options, and I checked "Port Forwarding" and "amBX" after trying that it worked.
I didn't have to do Port Forwarding on the laptop though, so it is still strange to me.

UPDATE2: I uncheked "amBX" as I thought it wouldn't matter. Tried to host again, and the laptop could no longer connect to the desktop as a host. I re-checked "amBX" but still back to sqaure 1 as far as problems with the laptop not connecting to the desktop if it is host.

I got it to work 2 times, but haven't been able to do it again yet....

UPDATE3: It seems like connecting to a host is hit or miss? I got 2 more connections, but still sometimes no luck.

Another note if anyone knows why: On the laptop, it is not saving the player name. Have to change it every time from NewPlayer.

[bert_the_turtle]

LAN games can sometimes be difficult with Multiwinia. Check the personal firewall settings on both PCs; it's important that both have Multiwinia.exe in a whitelist to allow it to listen to incoming connections (and, if a list for that exists, LAN broadcasts), and UDP ports 4000, 4001 and 5009 must not be blocked.

If that doesn't help, find a file called debug.txt (I keep forgetting where it resides on Vista), clear your authkeys from it, and post its contents. From both PCs, if possible both from right after a successful and an unsuccessful attempt. The files get overwritten on every run. We can feed that to the debuginator, maybe it can deduce something.

[Scribble[SFD]]

LAN games can sometimes be difficult with Multiwinia. Check the personal firewall settings on both PCs; it's important that both have Multiwinia.exe in a whitelist to allow it to listen to incoming connections (and, if a list for that exists, LAN broadcasts), and UDP ports 4000, 4001 and 5009 must not be blocked.

At least the multiwinia demo (from before I bought it on the laptop) was on the whitelist as I checked that last night. I didn't check specific ports or the Router admin page for that stuff.

If that doesn't help, find a file called debug.txt (I keep forgetting where it resides on Vista), clear your authkeys from it, and post its contents. From both PCs, if possible both from right after a successful and an unsuccessful attempt. The files get overwritten on every run. We can feed that to the debuginator, maybe it can deduce something.

I

After playing a few more games, for the most part it seems to work now. The main issue is that if the handshaking message does not come up and instead it shows "Attempt 1...2...3..." messages, exiting the lobby as host and creating a new host seems to fix the problem. On creating a new host as the desktop PC, it seems to work about 50% of the time. For the time being, I guess I can live with this setup. If it really becomes annoying I will try to check out the suggestions you have made. Thanks for your reply.