Store IP Address as a Variable to use with sock.connect() not working - only hardcoded IP works???

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help troubleshoot this...

I've testing a basic network functionality using a Server side App on a remote LAN computer and a Client side App on the local computer.  The communicate using sock.connect (see code below).  When I introduce a the IP Address from a stored variable which is input in a text field it spits back IOErrors #2031.

This is the portion of the code that handles storing the contents of the text field in the :String var and then conneting to the Server using that IP String:

saveIP.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,addIP);
function addIP(Event:MouseEvent){

    var inputMyIP:String = enterIP.text; // enterIP is the name of the input text field
    trace(inputMyIP);
    sock.connect(inputMyIP, 25000); //this var version of IP does not work???
   //sock.connect('192.168.0.116', 25000);  // this hard coded IP works
}

The socket class requires the IP to be a string.  I realize that the input field is collecting the user input as .text.  It's being stored in a String so should be converted as necessary right? 

Thanks for any help you can lend!