My IP connection doesnt work

[IRN_BRU]

I used to play online with a friend a few years ago.

I haven`t played online since and thought I would get a game going again.  I went on the net, booted up FS and hosted an IP game, I told him the IP address, he typed in the IP address, done the search and my game name showed up on his screen, he then tried to join it but after some time he said it just says connection to game failed.  Tried several times with no luck, he tried hosting but when I type in the ip and click search absolutely nothing happens.

Is there a simple fix for this, I thought ip was more reliable than the zone? we will try a private game on the zone and see if that works.  

Im in switzerland, he is in Scotland, shouldn`t make a difference though - and we werent running any fancy addons.

Cheers

[KnightStryker]

Do you or your friend have a firewall in use? If either one of you do then the ip connection maynot work. Im not sure if this is your problem but its worth a shot. Hope it helps.

[IRN_BRU]

Yeh, i just found out myself, I disabled my xp firewall, had it on since I got the blaster worm.  I also have a norton antivirus firewall, i read that fs2k only has problems with the xp firewall.  I dont want to disable my norton one becasue every day or so i get an attack by trojan horse virus for some reason?