vb.net TCP/IP EXE issue

Question

Hello,

I've written an application that does 2 things:

1. It uses WebClient to get data from an outside server.
2. It hosts a second application that has 2 instances. Each instance connects to the server software on the same port.

Here is the issue. When I run the server app in the VS IDE, it connects to the outside server very quickly, and communicates with the 2 satellites with no problems.

Once I build the app and run the EXE, it connects to the external server slowly and has all kinds of problems communicating with the 2 satellite apps.

Is there something really important that happens when you run an app outside of the IDE and it involves IP/TCP ports?

take care, lee