When my AS2004.5 Build 142 is downolading weather I can see a network activity (flashing LED on my DSL router) just after download starts but after 10-20 seconds any network activity stops and AS2004 looks like freezed (AS2004 interface is not refreshed). This problem occurs regardles if I'm in Online mode or dowloading archive wx files. If I wait patiently enough (10 minutes?) the program finishes downloading and works normal (starts wrtiting wx data to stations). But waiting 10 minutes is simply not acceptable for me. Initially I've been thinking that this problem is related to Kerio Personal Firewal I use on my Windows 2000 Professional machine, but after disabling personal firewall the effect is still te same.I'm using DSL connection (128K).And one more thing: Processing my flight plan (VFR flight 130 nm miles long in Washington state, 4 waypoints) takes about 5 minutes. Is this normal? During processing AS2004 interface is not responding. My machine is pretty fast (Athlon 2000, 1 gig RAM) I fly at 20-24 fps with all sliders pretty high.Any ideas?

Hi,All symptoms point to the download not completing properly.With your connection, downloads should not take longer than 20 seconds.The lengthy processing confirms that the download is not complete, and is most likely using a previous invalid wx file.It sounds like your firewall, even though disabled, is still preventing AS2004 from communicating. We have had reports of several different firewall packages needing to have AS2004 explicity configured for network access, and some reports of disabling the firewall still preventing access until this explicit configuration is done.I would recommend that you read up on your firewall documentation and find out how to permit AS2004 for use. Usually you must start a "passive configuration" mode, and run AS2004 and let it download so that the firewall software knows which ports and application processes are used. On top of that, here are some other things that have been reported to cause problems with communications (not just AS):1) ZoneAlarm2) Download Manager Software (GetRight, etc.)3) Spyware or Adware installed on your computer4) Anti-virus / Internet security softwarePlease let us know if any of this helps! BTW, when did you start getting these problems? Have you always had them? Or has something recently changed on your system that may be related?

I spent some hours on this problem (destroying my sound drivers in meantime trying to solve problems with sound stutters, but recovering them finally). My conclusion is:When FS2004 runs on my system it takes all the processor power it can get. When I look at processor utilisation in Task Manager it's always 100% when FS2004 runs. I have FS2004 running with Normal priority (without any additional trick with priorities). Even with that every other application (like AS2004) must fight hard with FS2004 for processor time. And this is the reason why after downloading data (which takes about 20 seconds) AS2004 needs a lot of time (about 4 minutes) to process this data. Simply AS2004 gets not enough processor cycles.Thats my theory :)I don't know how to solve this. When I try giving AS2004 higher priority I instantly get sound stutters in FS2004. Maybe I should simply live with this - if I don't look at AS2004 interface I don't know that the program looks like freezed.

Today my FS2004 crashed (it happens sometimes and in my opinion is not related to AS2004 because I had some FS2004 crashes before installing AS2004), processor usage dropped to 2-4% but AS2004 was still not responding (interface not refreshing, all symptoms of hang up program). But I left it for about 10 minutes without killing and after that time the AS2004 returned to life for one minute. Just now when I'm writing this (FS2004 not running, processor usage 0%-1%) AS2004 is again not responding at all... After one minute - back to life. Maybe this problem is caused by FS2004 unexpected crash? But it looks similiar to other problems with slow processing by AS2004.Just now I have three programs open:Internet Explorer 6.0Mail Client (The Bat!)AS2004 (still running after FS2004 crash)When I click on Explorer's window or Bat's window they come to front just INSTANTLY. But when I click AS2004 window I'm experiencing 0,5 second of hesitation and after that time - AS2004 window comes to front. Sometimes it's not 0,5 second - it can be 1 second or even minutes...After killing AS2004 and restarting it (without FS2004 running) it started to behave correctly - for example AS2004 window comes to front instantly after click. But when I start FS2004 - problems returns. For example - when I change airport in FS2004 (AS2004 in online mode) - I have to wait 10 minutes for refreshing weather.I tried to increase AS2004.exe process priority in Task Manager - without any improvements.Is this normal that during download and processing after download AS2004 interface is not responding and not refreshing (clicked AS2004 window doesn't come to front)? Other applications doesn't behave that way...What's going on???? Something is terribly wrong...P.S.After conducting some additional tests I discovered that problems with AS2004 responses and processing speed are occurring mainly when I try to see what's happening in AS2004 and at the same time having FS2004 on screen in windowed mode (in this mode FS2004 is using 97-99% of CPU cycles). But when I'm running FS2004 in full screen mode and switch to AS2004 by Alt-Tab - AS2004 is working much, much faster! When I switch to AS2004 (with FS2004 in full screen) - the FS2004 is not visible, and FS2004 processor usage drops to 6-15%. Maybe I should never switch FS2004 to windowed mode (Alt-Enter) to check something in AS2004 interface (like winds aloft). But I'm simply afraid to leave my GA airplane (without autopilot) unattended! I doubt if real world pilots can spend minute or two without looking outside. It's invitation to some crazy maneuvers and possibly spiral, spin and death (virtual) ;)