TAILWIND thanks for your help.
-Windows firewall settings set to allow cfs3 as an exception. Check.
-Router port forwarding set as follows
cfs3 start:2300 end:2300 tcp/udp enabled to local ip. Check.
cfs3 start:28883 end:28886 tcp/udp enabled to local ip. Check
I never had to set this feature up before~my router (linksys BEFSR41v4)has a section under "applications & gaming" called "DMZ" - with an enable/disable dropdown and a spot for the my local ip address. Before the switch from my Gateway 700XL P4 machine, this is all I had to do to host games.
Please try to PING my ip again-same ip as before. If you can ping it, we're one step closer to putting the i7 920 to the online hosting stress test!!
I got the port ranges from the microsoft cfs3 knowledgebase, here - scroll down to the NAT/Firewalls section on the page.
http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3/cfs3_kb.aspx
My Custom Built Warhammer
EVGA x58 Classified (760)
i7 920 Overclocked 26% to 3.381Ghz on air-
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6G DDR3 Corsair Dominator Tri-channel RAM @ 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24-1T
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(2)WD 300GB Velociraptor 10Krpm drives
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WinXP x64