HELP! Online and AIBridge

[Bob Reed]

With FSHost we can get together and fly without all the regiment of the others. In other words we want to get together and just fly around while we chat with each other we can. Trust me it is a lot of fun. You can not do that on the other systems they frown on it.

[Tim]

Hey John,

Ok, maybe I'm looking at this all wrong but I can not understand how my or your AIBridge/FS9 would keep anyone else from "connecting" to the server. Or could it?

The way I see it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is this. I see a port opening as a channel for information to and from my computer to the FSHost server. If my ports are closed, I can neither send data to the server nor receive data from the server.

So, if my FS9 ports were closed I could not connect to the server to send my FS9 data to the server nor could I receive data on the server from other FS9 mulitplayers. I have no idea how that would prevent someone else from connecting.

Your mention of ongoing problems in general on other multiplayer hosts does make me feel somewhat better.

Regards,

Richard

[JBaymore]

Richard,


Last night you saw graphic evidence of MY AIBridge keeping you from connecting!

Even if the ports on a person's computer are not opened correctly, they can often connect to a FSHost session. That is well known. And sometimes they can't connect., It is erratic and not constant by any means.

Also well known is that fact that when someone who is connected does not have the ports configured properly, that can result in the "All players could not connect" message on people who try to connect AFTER that person.

I can't tell the the ins and outs of it....... WHY it happens....... but it's one of the things I have learned in 3 year s of online flying and talking with folks about multiplayer. From what I have heard... all the "blame" for this gets pointed at Microsoft (what else is new )...... and supposedly poor coding of the fs2004 multiplayer code.

That issue might be one of the reasons that FSX was done to only work directly on Gamespy. Don't know though.

Read a lot of the forums on the net related to various FSHost servers... and you'll see scads of complaints about people connected preventing others from connecting. And lots of discussion of this whole "ports" issue. It is the bugaboo of FS2004 multiplayer. Sigh.........

There is also a listing about this on the FAQ file on the main FSHost webpage.

best,

.....................john

[Bob Reed]

Because once you connect to the server, the data passes directly from your machine to mine, the server is just a pass through. So if my ports are open and yours are not, I can not get the data back I need from your FS and FS knows this, and sends the message " all players not reachable" and this message means that someone is connected to the server who is not passing all the ports.

[JBaymore]

Thanks JB for your response, now a noob question, why FSHost instead of VATSIM or IVAO, or "the zone" for that matter, pros and cons of each?

AK49er,

As was already said....... because of a much looser and tolerant format.

VATSIM is basically "real world" from what I can tell. While that is certainly desireable at one level, it is a lot of "pressure" to fully comply with all real world regs. I have enogh pressure in my life... I don;t need to add MORE.

On VATSIM, I'd barely be qualified to fly a C172 correctly knowing about and following all proceduires and such. And I'd have to do continuous study to keep current ........ just like in the real world. And I'd have to have current charts, and so on and so on.

All in all........ too much work ,

On less formal servers... I can fly a regional jet reasonably sucessfully. And when I "screw up" I don't feel like a total failure....... I laugh it off.

PLUS... I find the setup of the system complicated and too much like taking a course at school. I find the docs at VATSIM great in their thoroughness... and totally overwhelming.

If I can find the time to get ready to do all that..... I'll go get my PPL. SO that is it in a nutshell for me.

Don't get me wrong, I take this simming pretty seriously. I try to follow correct procedures and such.......keep speeds to legal limits, follow altitude FL restrictions depending on direction of flight, watch airspace entry, and so on. I try to not "cook" my aircraft's engines or slam it down hard. But there is a big difference between learning as you go ...... and basically having to already know before you get involved.

best,

.........................john

PS: The Zone is gone!

[JBaymore]

Because once you connect to the server, the data passes directly from your machine to mine, the server is just a pass through. So if my ports are open and yours are not, I can not get the data back I need from your FS and FS knows this, and sends the message " all players not reachable" and this message means that someone is connected to the server who is not passing all the ports.

Bob,

Hum....... thanks for the description.

So then.... my guess is that AIBridge is getting it's position data for a person's aircraft by reading that position from the transmitted data stream getting "reflected" back from the server directly from that person's computer.

There is probably a "handshake" involved between the AIBridge machine and the person's sim computer. If the handshake does not occur.... AIBridge just sits there waiting for the handshake to happen .... that never comes. Eventually it "times out".

If this general concept is correct, it is therefore a coding deficiency in AIBridge .... it does not expect to NOT get the handshake for a "plane" that it probably KNOWS is there from other parts of the data stream probably coming from FSHost itself.

Anyway,.,...... it does not SOLVE anything.... but it is a possible hypothesis.

Thanks.

best,

...................john