Save Empire Earth

My friend and I are trying to connect to each other's direct connect game of Empire Earth Art of Conquest. We have done everything the help guide has to offer. The error we are getting is:
General Failure (Code: WS_WSAETIMEDOUT)

Is there anything else that could be effecting this?
We have portforward.com for all ports between 33334 and 33336
We have version 1.1c of EE AOC
Anything else that we could be missing or maybe some unknown solution? I shall be looking through other people's posts to check for possible solutions.
Note: We can connect to other people's games

Do the 2 of you share an internet connection?

i spoke to him and no they dont share the same internet. what operating system do u guys use? if you opened the ports correctly at the very least one of you shud be able to enter the other guys game

I use a vista, he uses xp

check your firewall settings and you may not have opened ports correctly or either your on the lan tab instead of the direct connect tab

well they both have joined other games so they know its DC. make sure no security is blocking access? i still think you have a port issue... because opening ports usually allows you to enter the game at the very least but alot of the time the game will not start

u might be missing a file in the ee-aoc folder

USOLA wrote:u might be missing a file in the ee-aoc folder

If they miss a file in the ee-aoc folder then you cant click multiplayer at all its probally a firewall issue

its nothing to do with missing a file

I fixed it for myself, now I am trying to fix it for my friends.

Could you enlighten us as to what you overlooked?