Unable to connect to FSX from Laptop

[colonel25]

Hi, I know this has been dealt with before as I have searched the forums and Googled this and tried many solutions suggested there but with no success.

My system for FSX is a Dell desktop linked on a BT wireless hub Home network.  I want to run Plan-G on the laptop whilst flying and so have now installed the latest Plan-G version there.  I have mapped drives to the Desktop PC and linked the relevant files.  I have created a SimConnect.xml file as per the example in the Manual, ( I have actually tried both IPv4 and IPv6 ) The SimConnect file resides on the desktop PC along with the FSX.cfg file.

When I try to connect Plan-G from my laptop, I get a "unable to connect to remote FS (timeout), check FSX is running etc.".  This happens whether or not FSX is actually running so it clearly is not seeing FSX on the remote PC.

I have checked that the two computers are seeing each other, I can ping both ways.  I have turned off both firewalls and also Avast. No difference.

I then tried to telnet to the FSX PC but have discovered that I cannot.  Telnet works to the outside world, but not across the Home network.  I've checked the BT router firewall and changed the settings to allow Plan-G application to run and as that did not work, have also turned off the router firewall all to no avail.

I am now lost for any other solution so wonder if you could assist me.  Plan-G looks really good but I have a two monitor system and every time I look at something different on the Plan-G monitor, it pauses FSX which is a nuisance.  That's why I am trying to get it running on my laptop.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the log which are not very helpful. (IP address removed)

10:51:06.9 RibbonButton_Click_ConnectFS
10:51:06.9 SimConnect.Connect
10:51:06.9 SimConnect.Connect - Remote. Mode = IPv4 Server = xxx.xxx.x.xx Port = 4506
10:51:26.9 SimConnect remote connection timed out
10:51:26.9 SimConnect.Disconnect

11:02:26.6 RibbonButton_Click_ConnectFS
11:02:26.6 SimConnect.Connect
11:02:26.6 SimConnect.Connect - Remote. Mode = IPv4 Server = xxx.xxx.x.xx Port = 4506
11:02:29.2 WxTimer_Tick
11:02:29.2 Checking for updates
11:02:46.6 SimConnect remote connection timed out
11:02:46.6 SimConnect.Disconnect

Also here is my latest SimConnect.xml file (IPv4 version)

<?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>
<MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
<Address>192.168.1.73</Address>
<Port>4506</Port>
</SimConnect.Comm>
</SimBase.Document>

I hope you may be able to help me.

Regards

The Colonel

[tim arnot]

Since you blanked out the IP addresses from your log (why?) you will need to confirm that they actually were 192.168.1.73, as indicated in the simconnect.xml.

Can you also run IPConfig on your FSX PC and post the results?
(go to the CMD prompt and type ipconfig /all >ip.txt then post the resulting ip.txt file from c:\users\<yourname>  here)

Thanks.

[colonel25]

Hi Tim,

I blanked the IP address as I didn't want to put it on a public Forum, however I can confirm that the IP address in Plan-G is exactly that in the Simconnect.xml file namely 192.168.1.73

I have attached the ipconfig output for you but I decided to try one more time before I posted so I launched FSX, loaded a trial flight, then launched Plan-G on my laptop and low and behold -  it connected and everything seems OK.  Weird very weird.  Possibly the order that things are launched has an impact although I'm sure I have done it both ways before.  Sorry for any trouble you've gone to but anyway, if you have any further suggestions, I would be grateful.  Do you have any idea why telnet wouldn't work?

Kind Regards

The Colonel

[tim arnot]

The ip that your router assigns for your PCs is local to your LAN only, and can't be accessed from outside it (almost everyone's pcs have the same numbers). The actual connection to the Internet is a completely different number, and doesn't start with 192.168.

If your OS is Windows7, Telnet is not enabled by default - you would have to specifically activate it.

[colonel25]

Hi Tim,

Just being over cautious.

OS is Vista Home Premium (yeuch) and I have already enabled telnet.  I can telnet to an external address (a test POP3 server) but not internally.  This puzzles me.  I'm certainly no expert but I can't understand why I can't telnet to another PC on my internal network.  Am I being dumb?

The Colonel

[tim arnot]

Maybe somebody else can help? My entire knowledge of telnet is exhausted after "it isn't enabled as standard"...

[colonel25]

Morning Tim,

Ha ha, don't worry, you have obviously given all your time to writing Plan-G - it's excellent.  I've been playing for the last two days and I'm just beginning to find my way around.  Not only is it a very helpful piece of software, it's also intuitive to use (for a non-pilot like me anyway - I can't speak for a professional)  :-X .

I don't know whether you have commented in your Operation manual but it seems pretty critical that you must launch FSX first when on a networked set-up or else you will continually get time out errors as your programme tries to find FSX to synchronise with.  It works OK if you're just building the database, it's only the actual connection that doesn't seem to work.  I wonder if this is the problem some other users have had and have resolved it without knowing why.

Anyway, thanks for your help, and I shall carry on trying it all out.

Regards

The Colonel

[tim arnot]

It's certainly not that way for me -- I always have Plan-G running on the laptop before I've even switched the FS PC on..