Problem connecting to LAN server

[Cass682]

Been doing some searching for a couple of hours now, and havent found any solutions, so I'll post.

Installed the 4.4 (tried 5.1 wth same results), and followed directions explicitely. The SQL queries were performed correctly - I double checked the tables. Everything looks kosher on that side of the house.

Decided I wanted to make it a LAN server only so a buddy and I can explore VT, Time and other places with no lag.

So...I set up "GAME" machine and "SERVER" machine.

On the GAME machine, I changed the EQHOST.txt file to point to the SERVER machine, on port 5997.

On the SERVER machine, I changed the loginserver.ini file to point to the SERVER machine itself for login and also world server. I also setup minilogin.exe, and miniloginaccounts.ini (which has the usernames and passwords that i created in the sql database). I double checked to make sure the MyQL server was running and that the db.ini file was correctly configured.

When I execute the minilogin.exe, I get no error messages and it says it is listening on port 9000. When I execute debugworld.exe I also get no error messages, nor when I execute the 5 zones batch file.

When I go to login through the eqgame.exe (yes i added patchme at the end of target line), it says that I cannot connect to the EverQuest server, please try again later. I can ping the SERVER machine from the GAME machine and vice versa.

I'm not really sure where to go from here, I've triple and quadruple checked the configuration against the post that describes the LAN setup. Any thoughts or pointers would be greatly appreciated.