Has anyone gotten multiplayer over IP working?

I'm running on Windows 10, my friend is on Win 7. We've tried direct IP connection after opening up a bunch of ports and the game couldn't be found. We tried Hamachi, and the game was found, but we couldn't connect - we just get a time-out (hit "OK", wait a while, and get kicked back to the menu). We managed to connect once, but I had to go - and we haven't managed to reconnect since. We don't think we changed anything since the successful connect, but...

Any advice?

Goodness.... i only ever tried multiplayer once for SMAC....

It was direct connection between two computers in the same room though.

Anyhow, we soon gave up on the idea after finding out how MP works with SMAC, its not good.....

You cannot do anything while the other person is having their turn, you cannot even look in your own cities.... you just get to sit and suck your thumb.

Well that was like 20 odd years ago, so I don't know if they changed that in a later update, but i doubt it?