Hi Damien, hi Jim,I've been using ActiveSky without any difficulties since its very first version and I'm very happy with it, but now as of version 1.7 I'm also getting those dreaded timeouts.I'm connecting via DSL and about only one out of eight tries will result in a complete download w/o timeout during .wmo creation. (METAR and TAF download works fine every time, BTW) I have two different providers I can connect with, it's the same with either one. Also I haven't noticed any difference at which time of day I connect.I can reach http://raob.fsl.noaa.gov manually without any problems. Here's the traceroute (starting near Munich, Germany) with the timings:>tracert raob.fsl.noaa.govRoutenverfolgung zu raob.fsl.noaa.gov [137.75.100.47]

Hello Peter,Thanks for all that detective work you did. You sure went through everything. I, right now, am tring to d'load winds with my cable connection and are having a difficult time. I just got 'em, but it took multiple tries. Much has to do with the servers we are accessing. A little has to do with Internet traffic. There is nothing in the .ini file you can change and should have nothing to do with XP. I'm going to say it is hard coded in the .exe file. Under these conditions you may just have to d'load manually as you have done.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Support

Hi,Sometimes the servers aren't too cooperative... fortunately this doesn't happen very often. If this current server problem ends up being consistent, I will work on an update to handle it. As Jim stated you can manually download winds as a work-around. But I am pretty sure this will go away very soon. I am also working on a private server solution which will make these server problems obsolete. Hope that helps!-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table

Thanks Jim and Damian,I realize there are two variables involved: time to traffic data to/from the server as well as elapsed time until the server responds. The latter, I assume, is what's causing the timeouts. Setting up a private server, you'll get that under your control, so that's good news!!The reason I asked whether there was any way to influence timeout values: in online mode tight timeout values probably have to be in place so as not to slow down AS in its processing. But in offline mode, while downloading and creating offline cycle sets, timeout/retry values could be more relaxed, I guess. Just an idea... and not that important.I do have three short questions concerning manual d'load from raob.fsl.noaa.gov (just to be sure I'm doing it correctly):1. The format to d/l should be default "FSL format" (and not "Original FSL Format")?2. Selecting "All Sites" has more reports than defined in wmo.txt. Is this OK for AS?3. A .wmo file for one cycle should contain data from 0hrs to 23hrs of the past day and 0 to current_hour of current day. Is it OK to copy the .wmo file once established for the first simhour of a day, renaming it accordingly, for use in all cycles within a desired time frame (like four hours simming time)?Thanks for your great support!PeterEdit: Sorry I spelled your name wrong...

Ok, guys...at this point I suggest, could you please write a small step-by-step instruction for this kind of workaround?I called up the raaob-noaa-website, sit here and look at these different entry fields, which like to be filled in.Which parameters, which field-entries are necessary to download the important datas by myself and how will they prepared as an offline cycle for wxRE?Tutorials are welcome... ;)

Hi all,I'm consistently getting correct and complete downloads now. The server problems went away, just as Damian predicted, and everything is fine as it has always been before.Damian and Jim, thanks again for a great add-on and for your support.Peter

Good to see someone is having some success. Not so here during repeated attempts to DL data this morning (7:30A, 4/10/03) for flight from KICT (Wichita) to KDAL (Dallas Love). After 20 - 30 minutes of cosistent "time outs," "Metar conflicts," and "switching to another server" messages, I finally threw in the towel. I guess the switch to this much discussed new, private server has worked for some users, but it hasn't worked at all for me. I'll give it a try some other day.

Hi Navalair,to clarify: there is no private server available (yet). Damian only mentioned the possibility that he might set one up for a future version of AS. As of now, I believe all of us are using the same public server for wind data.Further concerning online and offline modes: The manual says "Changing (from ONLINE mode) to OFFLINE mode during times of faulty internet connectivity is a great way to avoid timeouts (and still fly with the latest dynamic weather)." My posts apply only to timeouts occuring while downloading cycle sets for offline use using AS1.7. And only concerning d'loads of wind data as d'load of METAR and TAF data has always been fine.Messages concerning "METAR conflicts" apply to data content. And I never saw a "switching to another server" message, now that's interesting... :-eekAlthough at the time of my last post I found that I wasn't getting any timeouts anymore, I still get them sporadically (and just now continually at 13UTC 4/10/03). It is my assumption, that AS gives up too quickly IMO when trying to d'load wind data for offline use (entering a UTC hour and pressing button "Auto-Download and create new" on the Options screen), but Damian hasn't confirmed this.The good thing is, for offline use of AS this is not a show stopper as there are workarounds possible. You simply have to provide the wind data to AS manually. You will have to be aware of AS file formats as described on page 56 of the manual and you will have to comfortable with editing (notepad) these text files in your designated AS offline folder.If downloading offline cycle sets for more than one UTC hour, just continue d'loading whether or not timeouts during wind d'load occur. I'm assuming here that your internet connection is flawless and d'load of METAR and TAF for each desired UTC hour are complete.If timeouts are only sporadic, remember for which UTC hour a d'load completed without errors. After d'loading the cycle sets, open the .wmo file of a successfully d'loaded cycle and paste its content into the .wmo files for those UTC hours that didn't fully d'load. Now you're set for offline use of AS.If timeouts were constant for all d'loads, you'll have to take your browser to http://raob.fsl.noaa.gov. First, for yesterdays winds, select yesterdays date and select hours starting at 0 and ending 23. Keep "Sounding Specific Information" to the defaults. For "Select Radiosonde Sites by:" select "All Sites". Press button "Continue data request". On the new page keep all values at default and just press "Continue data access". Be patient and wait, it's going to take awhile (after all, this is why AS timeouts, i guess ;)) until the server responds. Press CTRL-A (to select all) and CTRL-C (to copy all). Again be patient: its alot of data to be put in windows copy/paste buffer. Open a .wmo file and press CTRL-V (to paste) this data into the file. Repeat these steps for todays date to append data for current day winds and forget about tomorrows winds. Again, insert the content to all .wmo files for your desired UTC hours.I sincerely hope what I provided here is somewhat clear and gets you going in OFFLINE mode. It's not that complicated as it may appear. What AS does with this data, now that's the complicated processing part. :-) And the reason why AS is such a great product! I'm perfectly confident, with his dedicated support, Damian will find a way to make winds d'loads more reliable soon..PeterWow, this definitely is the most lengthy post i've ever written anywhere. :-lol Thanks for your time, but I hope it helps some...

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm yah but on the other hand couldn't Damian simply fix the server problem? When you think about it, you can go the other route and not use any weather program add-on at all; simply copy down all the latest winds and observations from the internet and manually program them into FS2002's weather engine. The whole idea with buying a commercial weather add on is to automate this :)

Well.... Damian can't fix a .gov server ;) The alternative would be, as he said he is considering, to set up a private one under his control. And I for one wouldn't even think of going back to FS2002's weather engine or not using ActiveSky. AS does alot more and I feel I would really be missing out on a great part of what makes FS so much fun and addictive now.True, I agree the d'load process should be reliably automated (as it always has been in the past). But setting up a new private server and releasing a new and tested version of AS that would access it can't be done overnite. So I feel we should have some patience here with Damian...And please remember: what I provided above is not an "official standard procedure". I'm just a dedicated user, not associated with HifiSim. So plz, just take that as a temporary workaround FWIW.Cheers, Peter

Russ,Those messages are all normal and indicate proper operation. Are you experiencing any other problems?-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table

Hi Thanks for that Peter,All,Yes, I have no control over the public data servers (please see your license.rtf for more information and a disclaimer too).Unfortunately such is the nature of public data servers. I am working on the private server situation. Not that this will solve all internet problems but at least I'll be able to control my own server and make sure its working ok.Many problems folks are experiencing are not problems at all! They are getting "Invalid server response, retrying" or "Metar conflict, skipping" which is COMPLETELY NORMAL AND INDICATES PROPER OPERATION! I am getting many emails and posts about this - FOLKS PLEASE REALIZE THAT ALL MESSAGES YOU RECEIVE OTHER THAN A SEPERATE "DINGING" WINDOW ARE INFORMATIONAL ONLY AND DO NOT INDICATE A TRUE ERROR!The winds aloft server is flaky this week, and offline winds downloads are using a 60 second timeout. If no server response within 60 seconds then you'll get the timeout, where the offline folder data is KEPT in tact which may be incomplete but WILL WORK and be completely realistic for 99% of the user base. For the other 1% who needs all 3 days of world-wide winds data (over 5MB) you can keep retrying. I AM WORKING ON BETTER SOLUTIONS as I always have and anyone can tell you that if there is a problem that I can fix, I will fix it. In this case I suppose I can break-up the offline download process into separate steps where the user indicates which dates they want to download from, and it is done one at a time. This way RETRIES can be done PER DATE instead of the whole thing at once.To recap how we arrived here:- Pre v1.6, only US winds aloft, both offline and on. Users getting VERY impatient threatening BBB contact on lawsuits. They want full international winds aloft. 3 months of programming full time ~20 hour days later we have v 1.6- v1.6 full international winds aloft but no offline data source. Offline mode simulation worked on for maximum realism. Poll done to confirm that this shouldn't effect many folks (lack of offline winds download).- Lots of complaints, everyone wants offline winds download.. - It is realized that over 5MB of data and lots of internet issues may be problematic.. many posts on the forum about this. User's don't care, they want offline winds! - Another 30 days of ~20 hours of work each to create a system where it actually downloads this 5+ MB of data, v1.7 goes to beta- No problems, no timeouts, no errors at all during beta... over 60+ beta testers pounding on it not one error.- V1.7 releases, first 2 days are glorious. Then the server has problems (for 6 days now).- Lots of complaints, these 5+ MB downloads are problematic (as anticipated) and the users can't accept this.- Other options sought: Private wx server ($thousands of dollars a month expense, at least another $30+ price tag to wxRE), remove offline winds aloft entirely, remove auto download process let users download manually only, leave things alone and the server will get better.Feedback on this is welcome... Everyone, please realize that most users reporting problems here actually have no problem with wxRE. It is working fine. The internet and the server for winds aloft is a little flaky, so sometimes the downloads are incomplete. The workaround is available, to manually download winds data OR just leave alone and get SIMULATED (fairly accurate) winds aloft for those incomplete areas of download.Hope this helps..-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table

Hi Damian,thanks for your comprehensive reply and clarification! I hope my posts didn't come across as unduly complaintive - they weren't meant that way. I very much recognize and sincerely appreciate your dedication in bringing more and better functionality and realism to wxRe with each new version.I use offline mode for flying during local daytime (sim)hours when simming after work in the evening, using FS time as opposed to system time for processing. From what I understand, online mode always retrieves the most recent weather data, regardless of the FS or system time option setting, so that offline mode is the only way to go with a desired simtime earlier than current system time within the given 24hour time period.I'd say no reason to remove offline winds aloft or the auto download process. For now, leave things alone and hope that server responses improve again. My first post originated from the idea "hey, if I can d'load manually, what could stop wxRe from doing the same?". Since I didn't have any issue with v1.6, I guess I belong to those 99% of the user base you so defined. And even if I would want to be a member of the 1% club, yes, I can accept the manual workaround if and when needed.I was anticipating that any private server solution would cost extra $$. Having the server only as an additional option for the 1% club would probably imply prohibitive subscription prices. So my guess is that costs would have to be spread also among the remaining 99% of the user base. In view of some exciting additional functionality like the possibility to select weather data for any specific date outside of the now given 24hour time frame (if I interpret your message concerning the "per date" d/l option correctly), I'd say go for it and, reasonably priced, I'll certainly follow along.Regards, Peter

Peter, many thanks for that clearly explanation and the way to get step-by-step-aloft winds for offline mode.I think, your short instruction can help all users with timeouts and will shorten the time until server connections getting more reliable.In case of fact, that server connections will drop down for even longer time, perhaps Damian can find another (reasonably priced but reliable) solution, otherwise I also could live with winds aloft simulation in offline mode or make the way like you described.Once again - thanks a lot...and @Damian: don't give up, keep going on!AS is worth the trouble ;)

Hello Damian and others,I too suffer incidental timeouts. If you provide a dedicated server, where will it get it's info from? I guess it will also have to download from the .GOV site. Sure, it will cure some timeouts for us, but this server will also suffer from the bad connection/performance of the .GOV site. Is the .GOV site we're using at the moment the only public server to get this info from? Aren't there some in Europe you can use? I am totaly unfamiliar with these sites, but I can't imagine the 'whole world' has to get ALOFT info etc. from just this one particular .GOV server.Kind regards from a happy wxRE user!