I would honestly say that I think you should be allowed to tell the player to read the manual before starting, and that's it, but in other discussions, I believe it was accepted that having something like a text box for input was okay, as long as it was not modified by the game (hence, input only).
In your case however, I can see where an interface for making a connection is definitely a good idea. That said, think about how to make an interface using only 1 bit of output. A long tone means connected, a short tone means type the IP address again, or type "host" to host. Something like that?