Alot of people have problems with networking(I know I did, especialy wireless setups, what a headache, lol). Some just give up. Its not easy, but its not hard either. I will strongly suggest you run on a network  without an internet connection. No firewall needed, no extra configs, no waiting for connects, no extra sofware, and performance throughput is high, etc... It just simplifies to whole process that much more. 

A simple command in Windows will tell you what IP address you have(for network card, -ipconfig- using the command prompt in Windows, dont know for Mac) and type the address in, using only the TCP/IP properties pages, and there ya go, done. I just wondered why in the past hardly anyone was using it, when Bryce needs(and badly, I might add) a network more than an expensive upgrade, to kick renders into high gear. HDRI on high quality anyone, lol.