How do you enabe a “listening” port?

I recently installed a Client application on an XP Dell laptop that communicates to a database on a remote server. The tech support people with the software company tell me that there application requires that there should be at least two random ports above the “5000” range enabled on the computer for proper communication. When I do a “netstat /a /n”, I only see 8 ports listening up to port 5000 but nothing past it. The tech support people faxed me documentation to hack the registry to make this happen, but who wants to mess with that? Is there an easier way to accomplish this or can someone point me to some articles that would better help me?