Trouble logging on to Gamespy

I haven't been able to connect to Gamespy even once. I keep getting the message that my player name is not valid, alternating with We were unable to log you in to Gamepsy, please try again. I tried creating multiple accounts directly at Gamespy and both accounts do the same thing. I tried opening the range of ports from 6112 to 6122 on my software and hardware firewall but have had no sucess.I tried connecting with a friend using the LAN option directly but even though we could ping each other could not connect with FSX.I was able to join a FSHost server and see other multiplayer aircraft, but I am interested in sharing my cockpit so would like to be able to log on to Gamespy.Any insights or help would be greatly apreciatedThanks, Dave Logan