Conquest multiplayer problems

[Hollow Mind]

Ok, so I have been playing civ 3 and i've never had any problems before but last week I had someone ask if i wanted to play a game together. So I opened up the multilayer and tried hosting the game but no one could see me (and yes i checked that my fire wall is allowing the game and yes I did forward the ports that the conquest manual says need to be open) so after a failing at that my friend hosted and we played for several hours. Quite a blast but today when we went to launch our saved game the game wont let me (or anyone else) past the first launch screen. It just gives the connecting message and then gives me the message about you or the host may be behind a firewall.
can any one tell me what is going on?