Hey Steve,
Thought your username sounded familiar. I had spotted your comment on Steam and was going to try to get around to that today but glad you also posted here on the forums.
So since you're a Steam user you are on the latest version of the game with our up-to-date patch. So thankfully that's not the cause of the issue potentially. You will want to double-check that Steam and OOTP are being run as administrator if you're Windows. It could be that some 3rd party program is blocking the connection between the game and our servers. You could also look at whitelisting the game in any security programs you have on your computer as well as on any firewalls you have setup. Outside of that there could be a network issue. I remember a few years back major ISP's all put up a new advanced security setting on routers and that blocked access to OOTP PT mode for a good chunk of users before that got fixed. So there's also a chance it's ISP security just intercepting the connection and denying it. If you're on a personal wireless or wired internet I would advise to check those for security settings as well if you feel comfortable doing that.
If you do still want to put up a ticket regarding your issue (it'll probably be me replying there as well) you can do so at
support@ootpdevelopments.com. Just fire us an email there and we'll get it.
Thanks
Alex