Chaotic synchronization of two directly modulated semiconductor lasers with negative delayed optoelectronic feedback is investigated and this scheme is found to be useful for efficient bidirectional communication between the lasers. A symmetric bidirectional coupling is identified as a suitable method for isochronal synchronization of such lasers. The optimum values of coupling and feedback strength that can provide maximum quality of synchronization are identified. This method is successfully employed for encoding/decoding both analog and digital messages. The importance of a symmetric coupling is demonstrated by studying the variation of decoding efficiency with respect to asymmetric coupling.