Our normal launcher reads a settings file I hadn't checked, while the other laptop was tested interactively; I have only written down their nominal addresses so far.

We once compared two network setups while one shortcut read an old endpoint from a copied folder, so record the actual launch configuration and route before treating the second laptop as a known-good equivalent.

That copied-settings case sounds relevant. Is Owen's timeout reaching the intended service at all?

Not established yet. Get the endpoint and selected route verified first; successful ping alone cannot answer the service question.

IT found an old destination in the launcher's copied configuration and corrected it; the documented read-only request now reaches the intended controller, but our application still rejects the returned response format.

That separates two problems rather usefully: preserve the endpoint finding, then have the software maintainer compare the actual imported SDK contract with the response parser instead of undoing the network correction.

The maintainer has the returned response and imported-package details now; the launcher configuration is recorded, but the identity display is not working yet and I haven't called the entire check fixed.

Please post what the parser review finds. The connection worked; the displayed identity still hasn't.