help on Battlefield 1942 on home network, please

Just spent 3 hours trying everything to play, reseting up network etc... .
2 win xp PC's cable connected by a linksys router on a network in my home. Can connect to each PC without the game so I guess network is OK.
One of us starts the game and sets up one under multiplayer then create a game. next one trys to join multiplayer then local button, but the game is not shown in the lobby window so no way to join. Other PC game saids waiting for another player.
Have turned off firewalls and virus software. and installed the 1.6 patch on each PC. do not type in a server name. Had worked before on 2 win 98 PCs
Really appreciate any help.