Well you can start by:

1. Posting your code
2. Telling us what error it is flagging

FYI remember, you cant create a socket to listen on any of the first 1024 ports. Only root has the rights to do that. Though this isnt the problem in your case.

1. Code snip /*Server code*/ int listeningport=0;

System.out.println("Attempting to create a server socket at port: "+listeningport);

serversockvar = new ServerSocket(listeningport); //Create a server on any freely available port //(read the api docs and modified this)

System.out.println("Server Socket created");

I believe, there is nothing wrong with the code, it creates a server at a free port now, but takes too long around 9-10 mintues

2. The error displayed (now) When I start the client, it tries to establish a connection, but fails indicating, "Connection timed out"

are you converting host to network and network to host correctly?

What am I supposed to do for this, exactly? Everything is running on localhost! -------

/*snip*/

You can check whether the server is created and using the port 4000 by keying netcat -anlp | grep 4000

Thanks to Apoorva Madam. The server is does start now, (with some modification, mentioned above), but the client does not connect

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