We believe this is FIXED — please retest on current versions.
Root cause class: the direct-connect gate depended on finding Adom Bridge's local API, which used to drift to a random ephemeral port whenever Windows reserved the old 47200 range (very machine-dependent — exactly the kind of box-specific failure you hit). Two shipped fixes close it: Adom Bridge 2.0.27+ binds a STABLE port (24680), and ah 1.0.41+ discovers it there (discovery-file first, then 24680, with service-identity validation).
Retest: update ah to 1.0.44 + let ab self-update (or reinstall both from the wiki), rerun setup. Fastest health readout: Adom menu → Doctor — the "Adom Bridge (direct)" row tells you instantly whether the exact channel this gate tests is healthy, and its hover text explains what it checks. If it still fails, the Doctor output is the perfect thing to paste here (with your ah + ab versions).
