Slightly Disappointed with the new online Flight Center

[OBIO]

Not with the SOH Flight Center itself....just with the fact that more people have not taken advantage of it and done some online flying. The last time I checked, fewer than 10 people have completed the Hawaii Hops list, and fewer than 20 are currently in progress of completing the Hawaii Hops list...and most of those are the people who have completed the hops and are doing them again in different aircraft.

I had not flown online before and had no idea what I needed to do to do so. Dangerous Dave has a supplied a very easy to understand How To that allowed me to forward my router ports in just a few minutes. It's easy folks! Very easy!

We have a dedicated FS Host server, and our very own Team Speak server (and Dangerous Dave has a nice How To on installing, setting up and using Team Speak). We, the members of SOH, have paid for this server...so let's use it.

I encourage everyone to hop over to Sim Out-House.net, look around, read the tutorials that are posted on setting your router up for online flying, and to get involved with online flight.

Flying the Hawaii Hops...in some regards...is like flying by yourself on your PC....but I found myself flying through some scenery that I would never have seen if not for flying the online Hawaii Hops. And there will be more hop lists added.....and I look forward to flying them.

So, my fellow SOH members, join me and others in the wonderful world of online flying. Fly the hops! Get with some of your fave SOH members and plan a group flight....re-enact the Gathering of Mustangs, take a scenic group flight along the Rocky Mountains.

Don't be afraid to get online, thinking that your flying skills are not good enough, or that someone will make fun of your horrible landings. My first attempt at the Hawaii Hops, my very first landing ending with me slamming the Alphasim Cessna Bobcat into a hill waaaaay beyond the end of the runway. My second attempt ended with me flipping Joe Binka's Grumman G44A Widgeon completely over on its back when I over braked on landing. My third attempt was a success in Brian Gladden's Piper PA-22 Super Pacer...a plane that I have never crashed...probably the ONLY plane that I have never crashed.

Let's be more than a forum community.....lets be a online flight community as well!!!!

OBIO

[txnetcop]

I think things will change gradually. The problem was with the closing of netwings.org we had to go to other places and fly online and have formed friendships there. Give it time, I think we will have a very popular online flying site before long
Ted
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[Quicksand]

I've never flown online before, and I need to get set up to do so soon. Maybe this weekend..

[cvearl]

I have been meaning to spend some time on the server since I first read up on it but real life has been getting in the way. I do intend on getting on some time soon. I honestly would rather be on line than flying offline. I have also been waiting for PNW from FTX to arrive (Feb 28th as I understand it) and have not been flying as often as I normally do.

One thing though is I am not so sure I want to do predefined hops personally. I would rather do my VA charters avaiable to me through Eagle Valley Air (The VA I fly with) but be online when I do so while using realisticish radio calls. Not sure this would be welcomed on this server. I know about Vatsim but feel I am not quite there skill wise.

I am betting that if I am on the server and in Teamspeak or whatever it uses and flying one of my bush routes and start belting out "Wrangle Unicom, Cessna Foxtrot November Charlie Victor Echo requests Radio Check" or "Wrangle Traffic, Cessna FNCVE is on left downwind for runway one three", I would be annoying the other pilots just trying to chit chat? :kilroy:

That is what my main concearn would be.

Charles.

[brad kaste]

OBIO,

I'm totally clueless when it comes to on-line flying. Something that's interested me though. You mentioned above "setting up your router." I don't have or use one. Just a modem. Does that mean if a person doesn't have a router set-up he or she is SOL when it comes to flying on-line?
Also,...does one need to install extra type of hardware or software in order to fly on-line?

[Snuffy]

Not long ago when Netwings was up and running, a mess of us got together and made some efforts at formation flying ... about 8 of us doing B-17s (A2A/Shockwave's bird). We made serveral runs from any number of places in the UK, but mostly from Deenethorpe as "Laughing Terror" did an extreme version of Deenethorpe for FS9 at the time.

Since then I haven't had the luxury of the time to do it again. I've looked into it when the Flight Center got started, but haven't had time yet to configure my machine for doing so.

One day, I'm sure I'll find the time to go over it step by step and get it worked out.

[Lionheart]

Every time I go online for a flight, I cant get into the room, unless there is only one person in there.




Bill

[Curtis P40]

Your right.. not afraid of crashing on-line, afraid of messing with a computer that's working..
Curt:kilroy:

[OBIO]

Brad

Modem/router...basically the same thing I do believe when it comes to ports. Dangerous Dave has a nice write up over on sim out-house.net on it.

Lionheart

Did you run the port test thingie to make sure all your ports are opened? I read that if one port is not forwarded/opened that it will prevent you from joining if others are online.

Curtiss P40.

I have never messed with ports on a modem/router before....took me all of 2 minutes to have everything set and ready to roll. It's super easy....well in my case at least.

OBIO

[lifejogger]

I would love to fly online, but my flight sim flying is limeted to an hour or less about two times a week.

[cvearl]

OBIO,

I'm totally clueless when it comes to on-line flying. Something that's interested me though. You mentioned above "setting up your router." I don't have or use one. Just a modem. Does that mean if a person doesn't have a router set-up he or she is SOL when it comes to flying on-line?
Also,...does one need to install extra type of hardware or software in order to fly on-line?






The router is like a firewall/splitter.

With a modem from your provider, you normally get one IP address (like a phone number for your computer in networking terms) assigned to your computer and you are on the public side of the internet kind of. You have an external IP address. You can talk directly to the internet without having to worry about port forwarding. You should be fine.

When you add a router, you now have a private LAN (local area network) that has hundreds of available addresses right in your house. It is dissimular to the external internet and filtered though your router using what is called network address translation. Basically like a splitter. The routers now are generally both wired and wireless at the same time meaning you might have 4 actual ports to plug into or the option to talk to the router via wireless if your computer has a wireless network card (NIC). Having this private lan in your house allows several computers in your house to all have access to the internet outside when you have just one address on the outside. Inside they all have thier own private addresses like a little gated community.

Anyway, when using a router, you are in a private address range. Your own little nieborhood. The addresses on the outside of the router (outside of your house) are not ocmpatible to the addresses inside your network. The router assigned your computer it's own internal address just like the provider had originally. They have a HUGE router of thier own with all the ports open out there somewhere. Your router needs to be told when network packets on a specific port come in from outside, that they be "forwarded" to your computer's address. Just like forwarding mail when you have moved your house.

All applications that use networking talk through ports. The server you are talking to has an IP address out there in the world just like your computer in your house does.

Example...

Lets say your internal IP address for your computer is (192.168.1.100) and some application uses port 6000 (there are 10's of thousands of ports in network terms). When your application sends network traffic out the router on that port (for the app you are using) and the return packet from the server comes back, your router needs to know where to "forward" that packet to. You are simply telling your router (in it's setup menu) to forward all 6000 based port (UDP and TCP are 2 types) packets to (192.168.1.100). Otherwise they will be ignored as your computer will not get them. They die in the router never being forwarded. Like lost mail. The result is generally an error saying unable to connect.

Long and the short is that if you do not have a router, you likely will not need port forwarding of any kind because you do that in your router.

The software version of the firewall aspect of a router is Windows Firewall. You may need to "exlude" FSHOST from being filtered in there. By default I think Windows firewall ignores all but the safest traffic and most standard of ports.

Hope I have not confused you more.

Charles.

[cheezyflier]

the only thing that really is stopping me is, i have no mic, so i couldn't communicate with the tower or other pilots

[Henry]

the only thing that really is stopping me is, i have no mic, so i couldn't communicate with the tower or other pilots
you can fly online and use the text box
you do not have to use team speak
H

[MaddogK]

ALL: The flight center staff will be glad to help anyone who needs help configuring routers outside of the posted setup docs, and those with dial-up or stand alone modems fear NOT, as you too can join in the fun, we'll help you set that up too !

The Hawaii hoplist will be supplemented by additional adventures as soon as the RTW race is completed in the next few days as most of the staff are busy representing SOH and haven't much time for additional duties at present. Rest assured these deficiencies will be addressed in the coming weeks, so come on over, enjoy what we are currently offering, and practice for the coming adventures.

[wolfi]

I never fly online so I will try it next weekend :jump:

[Willy]

the only thing that really is stopping me is, i have no mic, so i couldn't communicate with the tower or other pilots

Cheezy, I've got a mike and prefer to use the chatbox. With TeamSpeak, I rarely know who's talking to me.

[Kowalski65]

I never realy flew online at all before-I just preferred to pootle about in various planes.The only online flight I did do was Kiwikat's P51 gathering, flying from Norwich over the D DAy beaches.
But now I am joining in with the Round the World Race, I fly all legs online,and it's great being able to form up with a team mate(well,till they leave me in their wake!) and just chit chat on Team Speak.

I was clueless when it comes to Ports,Routers etc but the tutorial form Dave was excellent & it was easy to set everything up-took 5 mins in Vista!

Give it a go

[Henry]

i just did port forwarding
took about 5 mins
i had been holding back incase i screwed up,
just like melting butter
even a henry can do it:applause::applause::applause:
LOL
H

[cheezyflier]

i just did port forwarding
took about 5 mins
i had been holding back incase i screwed up,
just like melting butter
even a henry can do it:applause::applause::applause:
LOL
H

well heck, if you can do it, then i've got a fair shot :icon_lol:

[Ickie]

I am rather pleased with the flight center, its holding it's own with an average of 50 users on the site at any 1 time. It will take a while to get going strong but I think in a few months it will be a real popular website.

I could not be more pleased with the staff at the flight center, 1st Class

[PRB]

the only thing that really is stopping me is, i have no mic, so i couldn't communicate with the tower or other pilots

And Cheezy, in addition to not needing teamspeak (I like the chatbox too), there is no tower to talk to. There are some on-line flying sites that require "correct" ATC procedures and stuff. I would never want to fly online at one of those sites. SOH online site is "open", in that there are "no rules". It's anarchy! Fly where you want, buz airports, fly under bridges, nobody is watching! If they were, the Merc Air crowd would be thrown in the dungeon eons ago! :icon_lol:

[Willy]

Although it was kind of fun on the old NetWings server to watch one of those ATC types show and start trying to direct traffic. It was kind of like herding cats. A whole lot of effort but nothing accomplished as we'd ignore them.

[OBIO]

I have a mic, have Team Speak 3 installed....have only had Team Speak fired up long enough to make sure it works. I have not flown with a group yet...hope to soon...and possibly chat with the guys/gals in the flight...either via Team Speak or the chat window.

I like the fact that the flight center does not have air traffic control....I am free to fly where I want, at what ever altitude I want, upside down, through barns, heck...I don't even have to land on the actual runway....in the grass beside the runway is fine with me (until I hit a bump and my tail gear breaks and I have to refly the leg LOL!)

Being free of constraints (still have to abide by the SOH Terms of Service and Rules there of) makes the flight center a very relaxed place to fly and hang out with fellow site members. I guess one member was flying the Corg Cube on line....90,000 feet or something like that. No one gave him a lick of grief over it.

OBIO

[Ewan Huzarmi]

ALL: The flight center staff will be glad to help anyone who needs help configuring routers outside of the posted setup docs, and those with dial-up or stand alone modems fear NOT, as you too can join in the fun, we'll help you set that up too !

I suspect in my case you're going to regret your kind offer to help out.

I am computer literate but not to professional level and have only used Portforwarding for one other online game, but I believe I know the basic theory.

I use a B.T. Home Hub Router here in the U.K., it's a common router as it's produced by the largest telecoms service provider here.

I wanted to use the online flying facility in particular the hops and downloaded FSHostSpy13 and FSHostClient.

I forwarded the correct ports as per the server instructions and started flying. A few minutes later a moderator asked me politely to change my portforwarding settings before I continued. I did so and returned, only to be told about 30 minutes later that my settings were still not correct. I checked them, all seemed fine and returned and was told yet again and not surprisingly this time, with a bit of frustration from the moderator, to leave the server. Just before I left a user asked me what router I had and I told him and he replied that the B.T. Home Hub Router could not be configured to work on that server. As mentioned before this is a widely sold router; does that mean that so many potential U.K. users can't use your facility?

Needless to say I've not ventured onto the server again, not wishing to be seen as a troublemaker and I certainly don't blame the moderator's, but I would like to sort my router out to enable me to join in the fun.

Is there anyone out there, in particular one who has a B.T. Home Hub Router 2.0 who has managed to fly online?

To end this long post, I have used two port checkers, PFPortChecker & FSPortTest, both have confirmed that the ports opened are correct, but when used 10 minutes later to confirm, then tell me they're closed.

[MaddogK]

I suspect in my case you're going to regret your kind offer to help out.

<snip>

Start a thread over at the flight center, in the control tower. Dave and I will try to get you fixxed up.

[aeromed202]

Every time I arrange some decent me time I get ambushed. Years back I had fun with the Game Zone? flying site. Yes there were lots of bratty kids doing whatever but once in awhile there were some great times. I still hope to get my life arranged to allow for on-line stuff now and again. I'm trying.