No Network Connection
Find the Failing Side
Use my other program called LGTCPTester to find out what is failing. LGTCPTester shows, and can log, outputs from DemulShooter, Emulator, and Emulator tools. With process of elimination, you can find if HOTR, Output side, or everything is failing.
Hook of the Reaper is Failing
Make sure Hook of the Reaper program is not blocked by your firewall.
Output Side is Failing
Make sure the the Output program is not blocked by your firewall. If it is MAME, be good to see how it is started. Make sure it is not using the '-output' switch with an option that is not 'network'. If it is the Forked SuperModel emulator, it would be good to check the Supermodel.ini file. Make sure that AddressOut equals "127.0.0.1" and that NetOutputsTCPPort equals 8000.
If Everything is Failing
If everything is failing, then two things might be blocked in the firewall. The first is the localhost, which is also known as IPv4 "127.0.0.1" and loopback address. Make sure that these are not blocked by the firewall. The second thing is port 8000. Make sure that port 8000 is not blocked by the firewall.