I think you're going to have a real problem, unless you can sweet talk the technicians that run the college network. If they are prepared to open the required ports on their firewall then you shouldn't have any problems. I doubt they would do this though as it would leave the network vulnerable.

The second alternative is to get your own private phone line into your accomodation.

The only other alternative is to get anyone who you wish to fly with to come to you with their comp and connect them on your own LAN. Not an easy proposition if they live a great distance away.

Sorry to give you dissappointing news
eno

Eno,

I still can't connect to the multiplayer. Where am i going wrong. Can u please help me out Sir.

Firstly, i downloaded the zone and did accordingly. I'm taken to the page where there are flight sims. Then click on free flying and everytime a message appears "failed to establish connection with zone server" although i'm connected to the net all the time.

Secondly, i installed FSHostSpy and get all the available sessions. I click on one of the sessions and the IP address is shown on the right. Then i copy this IP address and paste it in -------->>>> FS 2004 ----->>>>>> Open Multiplayer Sessions ------>>>>> IP address. Now, when i click join there is nothing happening. There is absolutely nothing in the sessions.

Hope you can help me out.

Evo,
I have a cable and the firewall is turned on.

I went through the "how to open the ports" thread and did accordingly. The ports are given in that thread and i've opened those. But still for some reason i can't connect to the multiplayer.

I tried connecting to zone.com and the same error appears. I tried copying and pasting the IP address from FS host spy and that did not work too.

Where am i going wrong?? For your benifit i'm enclosing this pic which contains the IP address of a server which i got from FS host spy. Do i need to click search now?  But when i do nothing appears in the sessions. Can u help me out please??

I can't believe this. My firewall is turned off and i still can't connect. This is crazy.
By the way is it right to type in the IP address of a server and then click search?

Yes ...... that's the way you do it.

The only other thing I can think of is your version of DirectX might not be up to date. Some servers won't allow anything less than DirectX9

To check open your start menu and then RUN

Type into the RUN box  dxdiag and hit return

This should bring up a window containing the information about  your system. Check the version of DirectX if its anyting less than 9 then update it via microsoft update. Hopefully that will help

Thankyou
Thankyou
thankyou

You have just found a flaw in my initial posting

Add to your open ports list for FS9

UDP 23456.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused

Thanx again
eno

To be quite honest I would switch the Windows XP firewall off  rather than try and get anything to communicate through it. I know on the windows support site it says that the XPfirewall should automatically let FS2004 through, I don't quite believe it. I would suggest a 3rd party firewall such as Zonealarm from HERE it's more effective and easier to work with than the XP firewall.

I'm also almost certain that there is a setting in the XP firewall that you are missing. Try disablling completely.

I've just tried setting a game up through the XP firewall and it was completely impossible,

Sorry to sound offensive, but, advising somebody to disable their Firewall is NOT a good thing!

Firewall on - Your invisible to most hackers

Firewall off - You may as well invite them in!

You can never take internet security for granted.

I've had my machine trashed whilst playing on a "Non Firewall" server! 

Stupid me!

I'd hate to see any of the guys here fall victim as I did.

I have a Hardware Router and Firewall, Hackers still have a good go from time to time!