can ping my own i.p address, but cannot ping a friends to connect to his machine across internet. both broadband, with mine through a router and wireless network at home nehelp in being able to ping his ip address? many thanks marc

Pinging doesn't help you "connect" to another computer in any useful way, and getting no ping response from a computer doesn't necessarily mean that you won't otherwise be able to connect to it. What kind of connection are you trying to make? What are you trying to do?

trying to play a game across a network, was thinking that if i can ping my friends machine, the game should be able to find it, because at the moment, the game cant find the ip address. any help in being able to connect would be appreciated, many thanks

Many ISPs block ICMP packets ("pings") because these can be used for malicious attacks on their subscribers. If you can both connect to the Internet you should be able to set up gaming between your two machines. If you're using a firewall (and you SHOULD be!) you'll have to open the ports used by the game for remote connections from your friend's IP Address and vice versa. Check your user manual to see which port number(s) it uses and how to set it up. You may have to go to the game maker's website and scan their Support section for how to do this.

"Many ISPs block ICMP packets ("pings") because these can be used for malicious attacks on their subscribers. If you can both connect to the Internet you should be able to set up gaming between your two machines." Not necessarily. By default, most routers would allow both him and his friend access to internet game servers, but would not allow either to connect to a server hosted on the other friend's computer. This is because router/firewalls usually allow all traffic initiated from with the LAN out, but block all connections made initially from the outside in. "If you're using a firewall (and you SHOULD be!) you'll have to open the ports used by the game for remote connections from your friend's IP Address and vice versa." Normally, the only one who needs to do any port forwarding is the person hosting the server. Don't forget to configure your router/firewall AND your software firewall if you're running both...like you should be. ;-) Both sides need to configure their software firewalls to allow the game app to initiate and respond to connections. "...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"