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KingGhidorah

Simconnect can no longer resolve local computer name?

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Today I installed ASN SP1, and my networked configuration no longer worked.  Obviously I thought that ASN had screwed things up, but I no longer think this is the case.  I ran the AI_Traffic.exe over my network, as a diagnostic, and it didn't work.  My networked configuration has worked for years, but today, I just couldn't get the two computers to talk with Simconnect.

 

Eventually I tracked the problem down to the use of the FSX Server computer name inside the Simconnect.ini on the client side.  The Simconnect Client suddenly stopped being able to finally resolve the name of the network computer down to it's network IP address.  For years, my Simconnect.cfg (on the Active Sky machine) has been:

 

[simConnect]

Protocol=IPv4

Address=Mycomputer  (the name of the computer on the local network)

Port=500

 

but I had to change the Mycomputer to the explicit local IP address.  Then, with that change, ASN was finally able to make a Simconnect connection with FSX on the other machine. 

 

BUT WHY?  I got it working again, thankfully, but why did I have to change this all of the sudden from using my FSX machine's name, to now having to specify an explicit IP address?   I've had a working networked Simconnect setup for years!  In the Windows Network and Sharing center map, the FSX machine shows up by name, just like always, and I certainly don't remember changing anything. 

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Hello,

 

This exact thing happened to me last night.  One day everything is fine, then the next day I can't get networked applications to connect to FSX.  For me it was simconnect applications (Active Sky Next, Pro-ATC) and wideFS (Radar contact, FSCommander).  I found this thread so I went in and put the IP address in the simconnect files instead of my computer name and now simconnect works!  But...the wideFS does not.  When I run wideFS, it shows at the top of the screen in FSX "waiting for clients...", but when I run Radar contact, it says FS is not running on the server.  And FSCommander says "cannot connect to FSX".

 

I don't think the IP address is a good solution for me because I will get a new address each time I boot up. I have 4 computers and a printer on my network, so if I put a static address in for my server, it may screw up the other computers/printer if the router assigns them the same address.

 

Has anyone else seen this? KingGhidorah - were you ever able to revert back to your computer name or are you still on the IP address?  Did you figure out what happened?

 

Thanks,

Don

 

PS - I did run a registry cleaner a few days ago, but ran the network computer OK afterwards.  Just in case I reinstalled the back-up registry, but it didn't make any difference.


Don Polidori

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The short answer is yes, I was able to revert back to using name instead of local IP. At the time of this topic posting last October, I did deal with the issue by giving a static IP, but then one day while reconfiguring something I tried using the computer name again, and it just worked. Unfortunately, I do not know why that is. If I recall, somewhere in between there, we had some wireless problems and without being able to figure those problems out either, one of the things I did was reset the router to the factory defaults, and then reconfigured my network completely. I don't know if that was what fixed it or not.

 

With Static IP addresses, the router shouldn't assign your other computers or wireless printer that address, so I think it would be ok just to have the actual local IP in the Address field of the Simconnect.cfg, as I did, and not worry about it further. I guess if you need to, you can give them all a fixed address, but you shouldn't need to.

 

What a pain this stuff is, isn't it!? I'm glad you found this thread, and I hope it saved you a little time.

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All of the routers I've seen "reserve" any assigned IP's and exclude them for the DNS pool.  Assigning IP's and designating the IP for simconnect is how I have always done it.  using a computer has been problematic for me.

 

For WideFS, have you changed the IP's in the Wideserver and Wideclient ini files? 


Jeff Callender

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OK, I made the IP address static and used what has been working today and it seems fine. I will see how that goes.

 

KingGhidorah - yes, I'm glad you made this post.  I had spent a few hours on this already...installing the SDK, re-running simconnect.msi, reloading ASN, etc.   I don't think I would have thought to change from the computer name to the IP address.  As you said, it has worked for years.

 

jbcallender - I looked at the wideclient.ini file and there is no IP address, only ports (8002).  I checked the FSUIPC config and there is a wideserver section.  That also only has ports, and they match.  Anything else I may be missing, let me know.

 

Thanks,

Don


Don Polidori

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So how exactly did you solve this problem?


Is your problem fixed now?  If so, how?   

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I was reading your other thread. So, if the problem you are experiencing happens to be similar to the one in this topic, then go into your Simconnect.cfg and replace the nickname of your FSX computer with its specific local IP address instead. You might have to go on to the FSX machine and do it for the corresponding entry in the simconnect.xml too.

 

See if that works, and if it does, than you have to learn how to set up a Static IP address for that machine, so that it always gets assigned the same number every time you reboot.

 

You also said that WideFS wasn't working? If not, then I wonder if your two computers are still networked at all. Can you navigate freely from one machine to another?

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Yes, they are networked together still.  

 

I'm stunned that an AS SP update would cause these frustrations. 

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