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Per January 31st, 2022, following the launch of VATSIM Velocity, XSquawkBox is now retired and is no longer supported on the VATSIM network. X-plane users can continue using the xPilot software, available from this link. ×

XSquawkBox - voice timing out

Duncan White

By Duncan White,
in XSquawkbox

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Duncan White

Duncan White

Posted
Posted

Hi Chris,

 

I am running XSB v1.3.3 ie the latest.

 

Whats happening is that if I am with a controller for 15 minutes or more the voice channel goes quiet without me

noticing anything is up.

 

If I am constantly changing frequency with many controllers its not a problem.

 

If I stay with a controller and forget to change to unicom & back every 10 minutes chances are voice will go quiet.

 

This has been happening to me for quite some time & other pilots as well.

 

Also controllers are noticing they cannot contact pilots & when they finally get hold of them the pilot reports being on freq the whole time.

 

Could it be the server I am using ? A windows setting or a problem with XSB ?

 

Regards,

 

Duncan

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Don Desfosse

Don Desfosse

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I don't use XSB, so am not sure, but it sounds like the cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ic port forwarding issue. Have you port forwarded UDP port 3290 in your router? http://xsb.xsquawkbox.net/faq/

Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations

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Duncan White

Duncan White

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Yes that make sense. Now that I think about it the problem most likely began when I moved from broadband ADSL to fibre broadband & was given a new router to use with fibre.

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Nestor Perez

Nestor Perez

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Hello Duncan, I've been having the same problem since my first days on VATSIM, but my 'timeout' is not that long. When I connected myself to a frequency, I could hear all the chatter for maximum 10 seconds and then everything went silent. I tried giving the PTT button a push but I had to leave and enter the freq again to hear everything. I then forwarded all ports required to my computer and it still cuts out after 10 seconds of entering, but now a quick PTT push and the issue disappears for the rest of the time I remain on that frequency. Even though this is not how it should be, it works good enough for me, but if anyone knows "a magical fix", I'll be happy enough to give it a shot.

 

Cheers,

Me.

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Christopher Collins

Christopher Collins

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Posted

Known issue - and not an easy one for us to fix right now.

 

There is substantial detail about cause and possible mitigation in the FAQ under the ports/firewall item.

 

The TL;DR version is: your NAT router is stuffed (well, has undesirable behaviour). The good news is you might be able to fix it with some adjustments. The bad news is that a lot of routers cannot be fixed.

 

This is also affecting all clients - ATC, vPilot, etc.

XSquawkBox - Developer/Maintainer

 

Please post any support related questions to the XSquawkBox support forum rather than private messaging me, thanks.

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Bradley Grafelman

Bradley Grafelman

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EDIT: Disregard

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Nestor Perez

Nestor Perez

Posted
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Known issue - and not an easy one for us to fix right now.
The TL;DR version is: your NAT router is stuffed (well, has undesirable behaviour). The good news is you might be able to fix it with some adjustments. The bad news is that a lot of routers cannot be fixed.

Well, guess it's not the best thing I expected to hear, but I'll give it another shot. As I said, if it just keeps on working as it is currently doing, it's ok for me.

 

Thanks for the heads up, Chris!

Me.

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  • 1 month later...
Duncan White

Duncan White

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Voice going silent with XSquawkbox.

 

Results from http://rw1.vatpac.org:18009/?opts=-R-D/

 

I am starting to wonder if the problem is the controllers router not mine.

 

I am ZEA361 and have port 3290 showing.

 

The approach controller I lost contact with has port 35066 (SY_APP)

 

The controllers I had no timeout problems with seem to be using port 3292.

 

I think from now on when I switch to a new frequency I will check the port# of the controller.

 

If it is not 3292 I will expect to be timed out.

 

user 2 name = "ML-WOL_CTR (885897)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3292

user 3 name = "JST609 (1375885)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:49200

user 4 name = "QFA457 (1345593)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 5 name = "ANZ691 (1414139)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 7 name = "JST500 (1386379)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 8 name = "JST517 (1391666)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

channel "/ml_appCurrently transmitting: JST530 (1334282)

 

"

user 2 name = "ML_APP (1306478)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3292

user 3 name = "VOZ1362 (1388311)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 4 name = "JST707 (1417259)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 5 name = "PLM729 (1263138)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:45079

user 6 name = "UPS182 (1401321)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 7 name = "JST530 (1334282)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 8 name = "QFA1611 (1118044)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 9 name = "YMA123 (878783)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:54613

user 10 name = "QFA25 (811093)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 11 name = "QFA822 (927562)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 12 name = "QFA784 (1119435)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

 

channel "/sy_appCurrently transmitting: SY_APP (1375382)

"

user 2 name = "SY_APP (1375382)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:35066

user 3 name = "QFA455 (1364660)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 4 name = "QFA1519 (1427280)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 6 name = "VOZ871 (1020541)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 7 name = "QFA461 (1258591)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 8 name = "QFA465 (1427388)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 9 name = "QLK229D (812681)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 10 name = "VOZ816 (1410069)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 11 name = "AIC312 (1334275)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 12 name = "QFA442 (1319364)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 13 name = "QFA458 (1412645)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

user 14 name = "ZEA361 (1267983)(0)", address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3290

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Christopher Collins

Christopher Collins

Posted
Posted
Voice going silent with XSquawkbox.

 

Results from http://rw1.vatpac.org:18009/?opts=-R-D/

 

I am starting to wonder if the problem is the controllers router not mine.

 

The problem with 'silence' is ALWAYS on the receive path from the voice server, not on the transmission path.

 

It's entirely related to NAT or stateful filtering and timeouts. The reason why transmitting fixes it momentarily is that it re[Mod - Happy Thoughts]erts the translation mapping, and so the return path (to receive voice) becomes valid again until it times out next.

 

If there is no NAT or stateful filtering, there is no time-out and it Just Works, which was more the norm 20 or so years ago when the protocol was designed.

XSquawkBox - Developer/Maintainer

 

Please post any support related questions to the XSquawkBox support forum rather than private messaging me, thanks.

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Christopher Collins

Christopher Collins

Posted
Posted

Having reread your post - if you are connected to the voice server and can hear other traffic on the channel without issue, but the controller cannot hear you, then yes, he is experiencing the NAT timeout issue.

 

Port numbers alone are not enough to diagnose the issue as well behaved NAT routers can remap the port and still work correctly - it's simply that consumer devices have become too aggressive with timeouts when using this technique.

XSquawkBox - Developer/Maintainer

 

Please post any support related questions to the XSquawkBox support forum rather than private messaging me, thanks.

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