Only 1 IM session at a time?

I have a strange situation that doesn't make any sense. I have a
fairly straight forward home network with one wired and one wireless
connection through a router and cable modem to the internet. The wired
connection is my home PC and the wireless is used for my work laptop.
This was all installed shortly after Christmas. Everything has been
working fine until my kids have come home from school. They have Apple
PowerBooks and connect wirelessly. It seems that only one person/unit
can use Instant Messenger at a time. I never noticed this as it was
just me before and I never tried to connect from both home PC and work
laptop.

They, of course, are big Instant Messenger users and want to be
connected all the time. There seems to be no problem with regular
Internet connectivity, just the Instant Messenger. Who ever gets on
first seems to block the others. If the first person signs off then
someone else can get on, but that then blocks the original user, etc.
They have different screen names and none of the PC's are set up for
connection sharing, so I'm dumbfounded as to what is going on. Has
anyone experienced this sort of thing and can help with some advise.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> I have a strange situation that doesn't make any sense. I have a
> fairly straight forward home network with one wired and one wireless
> connection through a router and cable modem to the internet. The wired
> connection is my home PC and the wireless is used for my work laptop.
> This was all installed shortly after Christmas. Everything has been
> working fine until my kids have come home from school. They have Apple
> PowerBooks and connect wirelessly. It seems that only one person/unit
> can use Instant Messenger at a time. I never noticed this as it was
> just me before and I never tried to connect from both home PC and work
> laptop.

Try posting this in the Messenger forums. It's probably something to do with
the firewall or NAT.