SBRelay Booting Planes

[Glenn Smith 830625]

Ok, I have tried to docomeent a little better exactly what is happening. I run WinMe, use a Earthlink DSL from a home location and I have FS9, FSUIPC3.4, SBRelay11.2, SB2.3 and AdvanceVoiceClient all loaded. I have downloaded and read several tutorials on using SBRelay, etc. (I used to fly with FS2002 on Vatsim no problems, FS2002 is no longer installed on my machine). Now, I get logged in just like I am suppose too. Initally, I can see the planes at the gates and their identifier info (I loaded the aircraft csl from 2002 into 2004). These other planes are reflected in SBRelay along with myself. Then within a minute and one-half SBRelay kicks all of us out. The wierd part is that I am still on Vatsim and functioning except I cannot view anybody else. Now about a minute or two after SBRelay has booted everyone, I start getting an Error message in a small box saying, "Send AddPlayer Req". This Error box starts coming over and over again. If you delete them fast enough, they stop and you can go back to flying. The whole time this is all going on, I remain logged-in to Vatsim and regular SB is working like a charm. The only lasting effect is that I cannot view anyone else. Any suggestions.

 

Glenn

SW1782 aka I can't see you

[David Voogd 857885]

Just a total guess, perhaps a conflict with the directplay drivers or something? (I think it's called directplay)

[Lennart Vedin]

As I read your post. It could be several reason to problem that I don't know, but subject 4. Squawkbox "SB Host.exe". in Troubleshooting at http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?p=2262#2262 is possible 'cause the fail is delayed and does create an error-message.

[Daniel Hill 865943]

I posted this very question today at Pete Dowson's forum. Here's the question so you know you aren't alone and you aren't crazy. I'm still waiting for a reply from the creator of FSUIPC and WideFS.

 

I'm not sure what's going on with this error. I have to delete those SendAddPlayerReq error boxes rapidly too. Everything else works great you just never see any other aircraft and you never see the "join and leave messages" that normally happen on VATSIM when aircraft get in and out of range.

 

I'm running Windows XP Home on my desktop and XP Pro on my laptop. I also seem good for the first minute or two but will get a message in FS2004 showing that Squawkbox has left the server around the time I'm cancelling all of those SendAddPlayerReq error boxes.

 

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:46 pm Post subject: WideFS SendAddPlayerReq errors

 

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I've tried to not post here and bother you, as you've probably seen and heard it all before--but after hours of troubleshooting and reading your docomeentation and that of VATSIM and opening ports on my router and such I'm still unable to solve this problem.

 

Running WideFS on my laptop with the usual setup of Wide Client, SBRelay,ServInfo, HostSB, Squawkbox 2.3.5, AVC. Running FS2004 both 9.1 and unpatched 9.0 for comparison troubleshooting purposes (from different harddrives and not at the same time).

 

When running FS2004 (9.1 or 9.0) and not using WideFS on my laptop and running all necessary VATSIM progams on my desktop--all is well. I'm able to see other aircraft and they are truly connected as I get the connecting to server and disconnecting to server messages as aircraft come and go on VATSIM in my vicinity. This is not an ICAO csl problem.

 

But, when running WideFS on my laptop--all appears well at first. I'm able to connect--I see myself progressing in VATSIM world on Servinfo---I'm looking good as far as ATC is concerned---TCAS shows other traffic---but--no other aircraft ever connects to my server.

 

There are no connecting and disconnecting messages in FS2004 and no one is visible although I see them on TCAS and ServInfo. If I wasn't paying attention to the fact that I never see anyone else visually or if I hadn't remembered that I get these messages normally of people joining and leaving the server on VATSIM--I may never even have noticed this problem other than the following error message that beeps at me every so often.

 

I get repeated "SendAddPlayerReq" errors on my laptop as these aircraft apparently attempt to connect and disconnect as they come and go, but are unable to do so for some reason.

 

So--I've concluded that it truly is a problem with my WideFS and WideClient interface somehow. Most likely a networking problem of which I'm pulling my hair out over.

 

I love using this WideFS otherwise--having it all on my laptop is wonderful--except for this one major hangup.

 

I have located the Wide Client and Wide Server error text files in the appropriate folders--but I'll be durned if I know what it all means.

 

Any help would sure be appreciated.

 

ArthurQ

Desktop-2.8Ghz P4

ASUS-P4B533E MB

1 Gig of PC2700 DDR

VGA 6600GT AGP video

Pro/100 VE onboard Ethernet adapter(checked your troubleshooting section pertaining this adapter and it didn't seem to apply to my problem)

Using Motorola surfboard cable modem

US Robotics USR8054 Router with wireless capability (but using a wired cable for both laptop and desktop)

DX9.0c

 

Laptop-ASUS S5200N subnotebook

1.0 ghz centrino processor

512 RAM

onboard video

Realtek onboard Ethernet adapter

DX9.0c

connecting both laptop and desktop to router with cable (not wirelessly)

disabled wireless connector on laptop to prevent interference.

[Lennart Vedin]

Acctually exactly this happen myself, but only once and first time yesterday. I cannot view anyone else in FS but all other work OK.

 

I complete exit SB and restarted SB, didn't help.

I save situation and restarted all SBRelay + FS + SB, and there all other airplanes was back again.

 

Now I have update to FS9.1 just to give it a try.

[Glenn Smith 830625]

Thanks Daniel and Lennart for [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uring my sanity. I did a little more troubleshooting and I got an email from the developer of SBRelay (Russell Gilbert-I think). He says it is a network card problem. He says the fact that I can see everyone and SBRelay connects the other planes for two minutes shows it is a port problem related to my network card. I am surprised Daniel that you have the same problem using XP and more current machine. I have Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet Adapter (NC100 v1). At least I think this is my network card. As I mentioned earlier, I am using a basic Dell computer on WinMe and a basic home DSL connection through earthlink. I guess I do not understand network cards. The SBRelay guy said that changing network cards my be my only solution.

 

I am wondering if SB3 is going to fix the problem. It should be out within the month. Until then I fly in a world of loneliness. Let me know if you all get any better feedback.

 

Glenn

[Daniel Hill 865943]

Glenn,

 

Well, I'm finding it hard to believe that this problem is due to a network card being "defective" or "outdated"? I thought I had this thing fixed just before supper tonight as I worked all afternoon to understand port forwarding and such on my router.

 

I finally found a website that showed me how to forward the ports for my particular router: http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

 

I also copied all the ports that are supposed to need forwarding from Lennart's troubleshooting guide.

 

I still didn't totally understand some of it and things had gotten to the point where my FS2004 multiplayer wouldn't even see my SBRelay session and the more I fiddled the worse things got to where I couldn't even get on the internet. Stopped for a while and realized I was forwarding these ports to my laptop's IP address instead of my desktop's IP address. I redid all my port forwarding as described at the above website and it appeared that my problems were solved.

 

I sat at Atlanta Hartsfield and connected to VATSIM and saw airplanes and had aircraft joining my server and I sat there for 10 minutes or so and felt that my problems were solved until my wife told me supper was ready. I exited out of everything and after supper attempted to rejoin at Phoenix for a flight to Ontario, CA. I connected and saw other aircraft for about 1 minute when my squawkbox was removed from my session as well as all the aircraft but I was still OK otherwise--as you've described.

 

Soo----sounds like we're both back to square one. I'm really skeptical that it's a network card problem. Seems to all of a sudden be happening to a few of us this week. Makes me wonder what's going on.

 

I wonder if it's possible that an improperly configured router firewall or something from any of the clients on the server might cause other's to be booted off. It might have even been me causing myself and others to be booted . Who knows?

 

I'm gonna keep working on this thing.

 

Oh--and Peter Dowson said basically that he didn't have a clue what the problem was. I figured since he created FSUIPC and WideFS that he'd know all about SBRelay and Squawkbox and VATSIM--but he doesn't participate in VATSIM.

 

Good luck Glenn.

 

Dan

[Daniel Hill 865943]

Glenn,

 

I finally completed a totally successful VATSIM session flying for an hour and remaining connected and seeing other aircraft this morning.

 

My problem was between SBRelay and Squawkbox. This list of helpful networking problem hints was found on the chocolatesoftware website and the two that solved my problem are boldfaced and underlined:

 

• Enter the IP address "127.0.0.1", instead of leaving the field blank. This is a special IP that always points back to your machine.

• Turn off your firewall. Note: some firewalls have to be actually turned off -- sometimes setting them to "allow everything" isn't enough. Be sure to turn off both the Windows XP firewall (if you have XP) and any other firewalls you may be running.

• Disable all network cards before connecting SB and FS2004 to SBRelay, then re-enable it afterward. This can sometimes solve a problem with SB disconnecting from SBRelay after 2 minutes.

• Disable Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) in your router.

• Disable the UPnP "SSDP Discovery Service" in Windows XP. Details here.

• If you have a router, set the "DMZ" to use your PC's internal IP address. The internal IP is usually something like 192.168.x.x. Open a DOS or Command Prompt window (from Start / Programs / Accessories) and type "ipconfig" to find the IP. Or in Win95/98/ME, go to Start / Run, enter "winipcfg" and click OK.

• If you have a router or firewall, try forwarding the following ports to your PC's internal IP address (see above for help locating your PC's internal IP, see your router or firewall's manual for help with forwarding ports):

o TCP 47624

o UDP 2300 to 2400

o UDP 6073

• Change FS2004's "Connect" port. On the Multiplayer connect screen (where you type the IP address), click "Client Settings" and change the "Connect" port to any other number -- it doesn't really matter, but try things like 23457, 23458, 24000, 1000, etc.

• Disconnect from the internet before connecting SB and FS2004 to SBRelay, then reconnect to the internet afterward.

• Host a session in FS2004, then close the session and try to join the one in SBRelay again.

Error numbers reported by SBRelay: If SBRelay is hanging or reporting long error numbers such as 0x80004000, it's most likely related to DirectPlay (part of DirectX) on your machine. Go to the Windows "Start" button, select "Run", type "dxdiag", and click OK. Verify that you have at least DirectX version 9. Then change to the Network tab and see if any errors are reported in the Notes section at the bottom. Then click the "Test DirectPlay" button to see if things are working ok. Select the TCP/IP service provider, select "Create New Session", and click OK. It should start a session. If that works ok, you can try pressing the "Test DirectPlay" button again, but this time join the session you created in the other window, or better yet, get someone else on the internet to do the same. Many times DirectX errors can be solved by upgrading or reinstalling DirectX (some of the older versions would let you reinstall it -- as of 9.0C, this appears to no longer be possible). You can download the latest version of DirectX for free at www.microsoft.com/directx/

SBRelay hangs: Be sure both the Windows XP firewall (if you have XP) and any other firewalls you have installed are all disabled. Also, try the dxdiag test program mentioned above (in the section "Error numbers reported by SBRelay"), to see if it's a problem specifically in SBRelay, or something in DirectPlay.

Error message: "This beta version has expired." Please download the latest version.

Error message: "Failed Enumerating the Hosts". This error can happen when you haven't first started either the "SB Host.exe" program that comes with Squawkbox, or the "HostSB.dll" module that can be downloaded separately. Be sure you're running one of those programs before you start Squawkbox.exe. See the Readme.txt file for more details.

FS2002 support: SBRelay only relays players from FS2002 to FS2004, so it can't be used as a full server for both versions. However, I have another program called FSHost, which supports both FS2002 and FS2004 in the same session: www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshost/

Squawkbox crashing: Some users have reported that the new Pentium 4 Hyper Threading causes Squawkbox to crash. Apparently disabling this in the BIOS setup solves the problem. For help with getting to the BIOS setup screen in your computer, try here.>

 

 

I also opened all of the appropriate ports on my router—which didn’t appear to change anything. I also upgraded the drivers to my network adapter/card—which didn’t appear to do anything either. The two underlined, boldfaced issues above seems to have fixed this problem.

 

Good luck—just thought I’d let you know what I found.

 

Dan

[Glenn Smith 830625]

Thank you so much for keeping me informed of your solution. I run WinMe and I have no idea how to locate my "routers" or "ports". Can you shed some light on where these items are normally found. I think I found my network cards but only one of those has an option to disable/enable.

 

Glenn

[Daniel Hill 865943]

Glenn,

 

Since you have WinMe then I guess you don’t need to worry about “Disabling the UPnP “SSDP Discovery Serviceâ€