FSUIPC4 and FSX and simconnect

[mikesflight]

Hopefully this may help someone be saved from the number of hours I took to solve my problem.

When I installed FSX I obtained FSUIPC4 (unregistered) (4.0.2)and installed it no problem. Displayed as "Add-on" on the windowed FSX screen. Didn't look for it after that as there was too much to tweak and explore on FSX.

As I made my way through the SDK mission tutorial I found that Simconnect was loading the FSUIPC4 DDL but not advancing beyond that and the FSUIPC4 log was showing:

1703 Failed on SimConnect_Open, return = -2147467259 [0x6100FD72]: FSUIPC4 cannot operate!

These had me stumped. Could not find FSUIPC4.dll It had completely disappeared. Everything else was where it should be in the modules folder.
Found there was a brand new version of FSUIPC4 (4.0.3) so downloaded and installed it and there was the FSUIPC4.dll in the right place.

However the same problems as detailed above recurred! Went to theFSUIPC site forums and found a reference from Pete Dawson about the possibility of firewalls causing faults. I have a ADSL modem/router with a built-in firewall, plus I also have ZoneAlarm Security Suite installed.

Disengaged ZoneAlarm and my FSUIPC4 problems all disappeared. Displays again as "Add-on" in FSX and interacts perfectly with the Simconnect log.

Cheers
Mike

[mmodesto]

good morning. let me tell something my friend..I think Microsoft should send us for 30 days and work with those guys over there because they dont know anything about SIMCONNECT, SDK, I got my FXS 2 weeks ago and I still here ground with no authorization to fly..LOL.. I Just can't find my SIMCONNECT.DLL anywhere and my SDK still missing. I remove all my fsx like 3 or 4 times and everytime I do that..something is missing...terrible..

best regards

mauricio

[jcboliveira]

Simconnect operation is socket based. So if you have a security application it could interfere with simconnect: Delays or blocking is possible.

Using netstat -ao |find /i "established"


FSX Server
TCP jcboliveira:1742 localhost:1743 ESTABLISHED 2504
TCP jcboliveira:1742 localhost:1745 ESTABLISHED 2504

FSUIPC Client
TCP jcboliveira:1743 localhost:1742 ESTABLISHED 2504

FSLog Client
TCP jcboliveira:1745 localhost:1742 ESTABLISHED 2224

As you can see there are 2 connections, but running FSX again

FSX Server
TCP jcboliveira:1804 localhost:1805 ESTABLISHED 880
TCP jcboliveira:1804 localhost:1819 ESTABLISHED 880
FSUIPC Client
TCP jcboliveira:1805 localhost:1804 ESTABLISHED 880
FSLog Client
TCP jcboliveira:1819 localhost:1804 ESTABLISHED 3404

The connections are in different ports. So unless you use SimConnect.cfg to "force" ports it could be difficult to just open ports. You can see that the connections are always in the loopback interface (localhost adapter). I don't use Zone Alarm but maybe there is a way to exclude FSX from the firewall, by giving the ability to listen in all ports above 1024 in TCP, however in the FSUIPC case, the client is running inside FSX so it’s a good idea to give the listening and connect ability to FSX.

You shouldn’t have any problem in external clients, since the firewall detects the client trying to connect and ask you what to do. You simply give to the client the necessary permissions (open TCP, all ports above 1024)

Of course there is always a risk in these operations but is up to the user to access them.

José

[lc0277]

This firewall problem is known by the ACES team, here is an article on FSInsider (http://www.fsinsider.com./Community/News-Articles/Block-It-Or-Not.htm)

I don't see why a firewall app should block or even filter network traffic going from localhost to localhost. Client/Server is a widely used design pattern and it uses extensively traffic on the loopback pseudo-interface.

Concerning the TCP port number, I've always used a fixed one in my config files, but if its unspecified, how do we know the default number ? Seems to be randomly chosen for each session :confused: but if the client is running on a remote host, how can it communicate without knowing the port number

[chrieger]

Does somebody have a new SDK for the FSUIPC4 version?
I do not know how to connect my FSX
I am programming in VB:rolleyes:

[jcboliveira]

The SDK is in Pete forum page

http://fsuipc.simflight.com/beta/FSUIPC4_partial_SDK_403.zip

José

[Pete Dowson]

Does somebody have a new SDK for the FSUIPC4 version? I do not know how to connect my FSX

As Jose says, there's an SDK file available for download from my Support Forum. However, this is not related to how you "connect". That is unchanged since FS98 days -- the whole point of FSUIPC is cross-version compatibility, so the interface has remained exactly the same all that time, with things always being added, never taken away.

The update in the Forum for FSX merely tells you which offsets work, don't work, and may or may not work but haven't been tested yet. There are also some new offsets and facilities included, and a revised FSInterrogate with FSI file to suit FSX as well as older versions of FS.

The main SDK is the one from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson still, for ALL versions of FS since FS98, and CFS1 and CFS2 (though these more by coincidence).

Regards

Pete

[chrieger]

Thanks Pete and Jose,

I try my best in the evening.