I have reinstalled WinXP Home as well as FS2004 in an effort to solve this problem, so far to no avail. I'm not really sure how or why this problem began, but I have been wrestling with it for the last two days. In addition to xp Home, my system includes Asus mobo with 800fsb2.6 mgh intel cpunvidia 4200 Ti with 128 megs of ram512 megs of on board mobo ram...Nothing has been changed that I am aware of which would have caused this sudden loss of ability to log onto multiplayer and real weather. Incidentally, when I try to shut down fs9.exe as a process, I cannot do it. I have to restart the computer and reboot. This problem happens whether I have sbrelay loaded or not. I'm using fsupic 3.12, which btw, will not accept my squawkbox code which I understand is LWVQ 712V 9GPB.Any and all help is of course appreciated. Thanks in advance.Shermdca662N3534 on Vatsim

I just responded to your post in the flightsim.com forum and as I mentioned there it sounds like a problem with a firewall program, be sure to tell any of your firewalls to allow fs2004 to access the internet.

Yes, David...it turned out to be the upgraded version of Zone Alarm. I had to go in and configure it. The process was a little different than the previous edition. Again, thanks for all your help...Sherm

Sherm,I've had the same problems with the newer Zone Alarm; but no matter how I configure it to accept MSFS, it doesn't. May I ask what you did that I haven't yet? Thanks.Rick

It turns out that I was somewhat hasty in my postive assessment. I thought I had the configuration set correctly, but like you, am stymied by the new ZA upgrade. So far, I have not been able to find my copy of the previous version. Do you have one. That seemed to accomdate itself well to our needs. And, if anyone else has the previous ZA, I sure would appreciate a copy, either direct email or snailmail. This is the free version, btw, so there is no attempt at piracy here...:-)[email protected]

I don't seem to have kept mine, either. Thanks for replying.Rick