I'm about to flip my lid over this Simconnect business. I run FSX on my W7 'server' PC. I wish to use ASE and GEPro from a W7 'Client' laptop. My laptop sees and opens all the drives on the server, and vice versa. I can transfer files from one to the other without problems. My FSX install is De Luxe with Acceleration. I downloaded and installed the SP1A update. I followed the detailed instructions in the ASE installation guide and believe I have all the files where they ought to be:1. SimConnect.xml on Server in /Roaming/Microsoft/FSX (same folder as fsx.cfg)<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?><SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0"> <Descr>SimConnect</Descr> <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <SimConnect.Comm> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol> <Scope>global</Scope> <Address>192.168.1.54</Address> <MaxClients>64</MaxClients> <Port>500</Port> <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize> <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle> </SimConnect.Comm>2. SimConnect.ini on Server in /Users/John_W7/My Documents/Flight Simulator X files3. SimConnect.cfg on Client in /Users/Howard/My Documents[simConnect]Protocol=IPv4Address=192.168.1.54Port=500MaxReceiveSize=4096DisableNagle=0I ran the .msi file after the SP1A update on both Server and Client.The only thing which I am unsure about is the firewall and those wretched 'ports'. According to ASE the port should be set to 500 for both Server and Client. This is where my limited knowledge fails completely. I run AVAST firewalls on Server and Client and I have changed the application rules to allow ASA_Exec.exe to connect in/out on ALL ports. I tried setting the rule to allow port=500 but this did not work so I reckoned if all the ports were available that would include port=500. I do not know if the router requires any particular setting for Simconnect. I have spent several days trying to make this work. It is very frustrating as I cannot be far away from a solution. I must have overlooked some detail. Any help will be gratefully received. John

A few things to try. Have you run the test as outlined in ASE to make sure FSX is using simconnect properly? The one with AI traffic. Tried it by disabling both firewalls? What exactly error or lack of comms are you seeing? Both computers Win7?

Thanks, ArDeeYes, I ran the AI.exe test from the client. Nothing happened when I clicked the .exe file. Yes, both W7. Firewalls off made no difference.I did a few things in the meantime on the Server PC. I didn't say in my first post that I was running Accelerator. I did not realise this had its own SDK version. So, I uninstalled previous SDKs and started again using the advice from FS Developer forum. So, I installed the SDK starting from the De Luxe disk 1, and then followed up with the SDK install from the Accelerator disk. Then I ran the .msi as they told me.Re. Client. I do not have a DVD drive on my client laptop. Before, I was transferring the SDK on a USB stick to the client and setting up that way, finishing by running .msi file. I don't know if this is a valid way of doing it - maybe not, for it didn't work! Apparently I must use the same SDK version in both Server and Client - in my case the Accelerator version since that is the FSX version I'm running.Maybe the easiest thing is to buy a cheap external DVD drive and install the SDKs the same way I did for the Server.John