Software: FS2Crew for A320 FlyByWire.
Reinstall did nothing, same error..
Firewall is not blocking anything, AV does not seem to be in the way.

 

It seems to be connecting to the following:

And I'm seeing a word not allowed ton of connection resets, but also "some" data flows during software start:

 

I just hate this always online DRM word not allowed!
I'm going to make it a policy to boycott software publishers that implement this word not allowed lazy word not allowed type of DRM..
It does not help you prevent pirating (someone will crack it) and will eventually only word not allowed off paying costumers who will also turn to pirating just to get it up and running..
For me it would have been the same, if there was a pirated version available right now I would have downloaded it just to get my version (THAT I PAYED FOR) up and running again.
Because I just completed yet another flight without my co-pilot software because the software could'nt phone home.......

Simply ridicules!

 

#Platform is MSFS2020

Edited September 10, 20214 yr by Randysteven88

Hi Randy,

MSFS requires being on-line, so we're not really alone there.

We have large number of PBE and FBW users now. 

Sorry to say it, but you're the first to have an issue like this.

I'm sorry we had to use strong licensing protection, but it's just too demoralizing to see people just committing mass piracy, especially when you're up to 2am writing code on a Saturday night.

But piracy has been debated ad nauseum, so there's nothing more to debate.

That said...

Some people have accidently added FS2Crew to their "hosts file".   That'll block any connection to the FS2Crew website. 

Please double check that you didn't do that by accident.

At this point, that's all I can think off.  If you still have issues, send me a ticket, and can show me this via a remote desktop.

Again, check the "hosts file" 😉

 

8 hours ago, byork said:

Hi Randy,

MSFS requires being on-line, so we're not really alone there.

We have large number of PBE and FBW users now. 

Sorry to say it, but you're the first to have an issue like this.

I'm sorry we had to use strong licensing protection, but it's just too demoralizing to see people just committing mass piracy, especially when you're up to 2am writing code on a Saturday night.

But piracy has been debated ad nauseum, so there's nothing more to debate.

That said...

Some people have accidently added FS2Crew to their "hosts file".   That'll block any connection to the FS2Crew website. 

Please double check that you didn't do that by accident.

At this point, that's all I can think off.  If you still have issues, send me a ticket, and can show me this via a remote desktop.

Again, check the "hosts file" 😉

 

 

Thanks for the reply, just for the record MSFS does have a offline mode. Yes its protected by online DRM but not the aggressive form of Always Online type that FS2Crew seem to have implemented.

It would be more user friendly having to connect to the validation servers once every week for example, the software will always try to connect when launched but will give a grace period of 1 week every time it cannot connect to the servers.. A warning could be given to the user that the software failed to validate the license and will stop working in x days. That timer then resets when it successfully connects again.

That way if the servers fail or the user has connectivity issues users can still use it while the problem is being resolved.

On the pirating issue, yes I know its frustrating but even with online DRM as aggressive as this someone will eventually defeat it, it's just a matter of time and in the meantime it possible to agonize paying costumers (me in this case) when the DRM fails at legitimate installations..

That said I have no issues with implementing checks that verify if my software is legit, but when it suddenly fails without any prior warning and ruining my sim evening it just grind my gears!

But I'll accept the request to not discuss it any further, so I'll leave it at that.

 

As shown in the Wireshark screencap  it's obvious that there are no entries in my host file as traffic is send to the external IP addresses. The software also worked just fine for a couple of weeks and now its suddenly whining for an internet connection..

6 hours ago, Randysteven88 said:

 

The software also worked just fine for a couple of weeks and now its suddenly whining for an internet connection..

If it just happened out of the blue, it could be some temporary internet issue somewhere down the line.

Are you still getting the message about the internet connection?

 

On 9/11/2021 at 4:26 PM, byork said:

If it just happened out of the blue, it could be some temporary internet issue somewhere down the line.

Are you still getting the message about the internet connection?

 

Unfortunately still the same issue till this date.

Send me a support ticket.

I've had no one else have any issues with the internet check.

You can show me a via remote desktop.

1 hour ago, byork said:

Send me a support ticket.

I've had no one else have any issues with the internet check.

You can show me a via remote desktop.

Done.

So after doing the Remote Desktop, we figured out that his Kapersky Anti Virus program was somehow causing this issue.

We're not sure if it's just a user setting in Kapersky or maybe his Kapersky is corrupt. 

Hard to say.

We have a large number of users, and others must be using Kapersky as well, and if so, they haven't reported issues.

 

 

Edited September 14, 20214 yr by byork

So the problem was within Kaspersky somehow blocking FS2Crew's connection even though it made no mention of it..
Everything else was working just fine except the FS2crew connection, really really strange behavior, prob something corrupted...
Luckily it worked once with protection disabled, but didnt after disabling the protection once more, so it became more obvious that something was wrong within Kaspersky.

Well thanks for the assit Byork! 🙂