Hi there,I am still getting the 'Error or timeouts' message when 1.8 tries to download 'Todays winds'.Just thought I would let you know as I am sure you will fix these gremlins in the end.regardsRichard

Richard,Are you sure your connection to the http://raob.fsl.noaa.gov/ server is OK? If you simply can't communicate with that server, it is an internet problem. This should be temporary and may be related to your ISP, so if you repeadedly fail to communicate with this site you might want to let them know.Thanks!-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 there DamianI am able to download Metar, Taf and Yesterdays Winds but it bombs out when it tries to Download Todays Winds with 'Error or timeout downloading' message.Do I need Todays Winds and Forecast?regardsRichard

I've bben downloading offline files all week in both regular and reduced bandwidth mode. Both result in error / timeouts, though as expected the reduced bandwitdh option less frequently. I did a manual download, and the first time I attempted it with a 48 hour spread as per the manual, the raob.fsl.noaa.gov server rejected the query due to requesting too many reports, so I cut down the time span and it then downloaded OK. I don't currently have a TCP packet tracer to watch the data flow, but I am receiving megs of data and am currently receiving data when the wxre download times out and stops. It seems like the processing should wait until there is no activity before declaring an error? Also, sometimes the download saves data to windsXXz.wmo after a timeout, sometimes the file just has the header. What controls that? For a manual download, is the whole 48 hrs needed for the processing? can partial downloads just be pasted together? scott s..

Hi Richard,Yes you need these - most of your winds data is in the Today's download. See if you can download it manually (see docs offline file reference) and how long it takes. What kind of connection do you have? Winds aloft is LOTS of data.. it is getting up to 3 days of data for the entire world in raw format. This can be around 5MB. You can try the low-bandwidth option to see if that helps. Let me know!-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

Scott you should be able to get 48 hours via noaa if you select only 0z and 12z... try that.The timeout function is of the MS internet activex control... It SHOULD wait for inactivity before timing out. I will check into this. What kind of connection do you have?-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

>The timeout function is of the MS internet activex >control... It SHOULD wait for inactivity before timing >out. I will check into this. What kind of connection >do you have?Just a 56K dial up. I really wish I had my old computer that had some IP tracing software on it. Just watching the status window for the dial up connection, you can see the initial contact being made to the server. Sometimes it takes a bit before data starts flowing in, but in every case I have 100s K of data received. I can see the retries, at least I am asuming that's it, on the "options" page where it displays the "downloading today's winds..." an additional ... is appended. I think I've seen it restart a many as 4 times. Every time it appears that data is being received before or as the "error or timeout" is displayed. One thing is clear, in reduced bandwidth mode, if it is successful, it completes really fast. The fastest I got the winds in regular mode was about 2 min.Other than that everything else on 1.8rc2 is working really well.scott s..

Damian,I have always been timed out on 'complete' winds downloads and occasionally on the 'lite' version. It always seems to fail on todays or forecast weather.Connection is not the problem as I am on DSL and can access the NOAA site with no problems. Wathcing the data transfer rate for the connection shows that it sometimes downloads data associated with 'todays' weather three or four times before it states 'timeout'.As a result, I thought I would try downloading the data manually as per the manual. Firstly I note that NOAA won't allow you to download 48hours worth of data in one hit. So splitting it into -24 to 0 and 0 to +24 (both relative the the present hour). The first bit downloads no problem. However, the second says there is no data! So why are we all trying to download this future data which don't exist, and could this be part of the cause of everyone's problems?Any thoughts?Regards (and Happy Easter!)Kevin

Just an observation.....It seems the more this product is "messed with" in the name of improvement, the more complicated it becomes (and hence more problems and difficult to use).Is the "no blue band" really worth going through all of this hassle?All anyone wanted was just an accurate real weather thingy as promised.I really don't know where it's going now. Muti-Megabyte weather downloads....sheesh.And we can't even get a metar decoder incorporated because it's not as "real as it gets".Hey.....is anyone going to listen to the consumer?.....Resonable price.....easy to use......accurate depiction of actual weather conditions......K.I.S.S.gwillmot

Hi,Yes I agree about the more complex this is becoming. Of course all the things we have done has been a direct result of user requests. Metar decoder is being worked on, the reason it isn't done yet is because we have been spending time working on the more popular requests. No blue band hassle I am not sure I understand... please explain..I will take your comments into consideration for future development. I agree we need to focus on making things easier to use for those who don't want/aren't interested in the advanced realism features. And so we shall..Thanks!-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

Kevin did you use 0z and 12z reports only in the manual download? You should be able to get 48 hours this way.The day + 1 download is for future use... forecast data is planned in the WMO reports as this system gets more refined so wxRE is ready to process it. The actual download for the + 1 is actually ignored if no data is received (as happens currently). If no data it gives a very small "No data for these dates" messages.The occasional timeouts I think are unavoidable with this public weather server on slower connections. We are going to private wx servers on the next wxRE version (2.0) which be much easier on dialups.-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

HiI must confess to being a little worried about the prospect of 5 Meg downloads. On my dial-up the best the utterly hopeless Polish telephone monopoly can give me is about 3.5kbs, so I'm looking at almost an hour of downloading, paid for in 6 min chunks off-peak, and I bet that after I've got through about 90% of the download, I'll get a timeout/error thing. I'm actually starting to think about going back a couple of steps from 1.7. Though will probably give 1.8 a try.Gavin

Hi,How about using the low bandwidth option? This should reduce it to about 1-2MB. Of course, you could always manually download as well and select a smaller area (instead of all stations), or even choose which stations you want. Lots of options here!-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

Damian,No, I have to admit to not setting just 0Z and 12Z in the manual download (i used all data), but trying it just now it still suggests I am going to get 5730 (or so) data points for the 48 hour period and the site will only allow me 5000. I have to amdit that when I have just tried to download day-1 to 0, it does not appear to be able to make a connection somewhere across the atlantic (too busy with all these flight simmers I guess!). I am away on business for a few days so I will try it again Fri night.I presume you split the download in to a similar split because of download constraints and then combine the files?On your note, when I use WxRE for the large download it will nearly always timeout when it tries to download forecast weather. The only time it doesn't is when it times out on "todays weather". So I am not sure it is detecting that no data exists, as on a manual download, NOAA responds instantly.However, reading between the lines on your above post, is it only worth downloading data for the last 0z or 12z block before the time I plan on running in FS (i.e. if I intend to fly at 17z, just download the last 12z data?Regards,Kevin

Damian,One thing I meant to mention in the above post. Despite the problems I and others are receiving, I still firmly believe this is the best weather addon around. Furthermore, I wouldn't fly without it, and if I have to download the weather manually and run offline for it to stay smooth, I will do so. Kevin