I messed around with VATSIM back in FS2002 days, when I was on a dialup Internet connection. I managed to get it working OK and I understand it has even now been improved. However , I didn't like the formality of it , nor am I a big jet flyer - which it mainly seemed to attract.However, when FS9 came along and particularly when I got a fast Broadband Internet connection, I looked around at what was happening in FS multiplayer and found that there are a lot of FSHost type servers whch seemed to attract more of an unstructured fun crowd and was mainly made up of GA flyers.I found that it was very simple to connect to FSHost servers and my new computer and Broadband worked very well -- BUT, I then started having problems, which I discovered was quite common amongst others and for which there seemed no fix. This was/is the dreaded "Can't connect to the server" problem - which seems to happen only when (some) other players are already connected. There is lots of advice about this on the net - talking about port forwarding, firewalls, ping times -- but the end result of this is the problem for me and others remains. I can't say that I have heard about problems in connecting to VATSIM - so perhaps the problem lies with FSHost rather than FS9But anyway, has anybody heard anything about FSX and multiplayer. It seems to be generally agreed that FS9 does not like it if a number of players are connected to a FSHost server and there is some kind of inability for one player to receive data from another player ( for whatever reason)Any thoughts on this please?Barry

I haven't heard Barry, but since I just went to Broadband a couple of weeks ago and have a renewed interest in MP, I am glad to see I am not the only one who has seen this problem. I find it's less of an issue when I use Ip vs. the Zone, but it does happen.-John

>I find it's less of an issue when I use Ip vs. the Zone, but>it does happen.What do you mean by this, please John?Thanks Barry

Never mind,Tried to join a few flights by IP, and same thing happened--could not join.-John

>Tried to join a few flights by IP, and same thing>happened--could not join.Yeah - that is what I mean. If I try to connect to a FSHost server (like Avsim Bushnet)using the correct IP , I can always connect if there is no other player there. But if there are other players already using the server, sometimes I can connect and sometimes I can't.Do users of VATSIM find this sort of thing - or is it particular to FSHost servers only. What was the FS multiplayer designed to be used for anyway? I don't know much about any "Zone". Both Vatsim and FsHost are addons .Barry