newbie query - ident error?

i'm having an issue with a remote user not being able to log in because of
an "ident failure". i think that i have added the user to the login files
but ident is failing.

from reading the docs i am thinking that one of two things is wrong...
1) i need to add my remote user as a user on my win2k system or
2) my firewall is not allowing the ident protocol through

does either of those make sense? i'm going to try adding him as a user to my
win2k system but if it is number 2 (or something i haven't thought of) then
what do i need to do?

many thanks!

rjsjr