Pete Dowson

If I were you I'd ditch your antivirus program and get something that works properly. Sorry, there is no way that I can solve your problems from here. You need to stop your program preventing you from installing a completely valid program. Pete

Unless you checked the option to interfere with FSX's weather (in the Miscellaneous tab), FSUIPC4 does not touch FSX's weather at all. I wouldn't recommend enabling that option yet in any case. The Simconnect weather facilities are not working well. I have pointed this out in the important notes in the documentation. Regards, Pete

Install it on the Client PC. Then, assuming Wideclient is running, run the program on the Client. Haven't you even tried just running it? No. You said the Wideclient was connecting, so it knows already. You don't need to. Why should you need to? By "WideFS main window" do you mean Wideclient's window? Normally you'd just minimise that. Why do you want 'buttons' on the client window in any case? I use the facility (my example is shown in the documentation), but I have a little touch-sensitive screen. Do you? If you mean joystick buttons, you don't put them on a screen. You program them in FSUIPC on the FS PC, no matter which PC they are on. Pete

That's wrong. It's the right version. But it not only won't work from there, it needs proper Windows installation as a side-by-side library. It should be in a rather complexly-named Windows folder, inside your Windows \WinSxS folder, but even if we could work out what that name should be, I don't think just placing it there does the job. I've really no idea at all how your FSX installation went so wrong, but wrong it has most certainly gone. There are two possible ways of recovering, I think. The one I really should recommend is an uninstall of FSX and then a complete re-install. Then search for Simconnect.dll again to make sure it's worked this time. An alternative, if you have the Deluxe version, would be to find the SDK on DVD1, install that, then find the Simconnect.msi file which should be in the SDK's "Core Utilities Kit\SimConnect SDK\lib" folder, I think. Then run the msi file to install Simconnect. Whatever you do, you should never have been able to get into this situation so I think you should still report this problem to MS. Regards Pete

First, please give the full version nmuber. Do you mean 4.00, 4.01 or 4.02? If not 4.02 can you download that and try again? If you do really mean 4.02, then this can only occur if your FSX instllation is incorrect. Did you by any chance have a Beta FSX installed before? Otherwise I cannot think how you could not have the correct version of SimConnect installed. Can you search for the SimConnect.dll file in your Windows folder and tell me the folder it is in? Also right-click on it and check the Version number (Properties-Version). Somewhere in one of the longer threads here, about lack of Add-On menus, you will find more information about where the SimConnect module gets installed. By "add on file at the top of FS" do you mean the Add-Ons menu entry in the normal flight-time menu bar? Otherwise I don't understand. FSCopilot provides an Add-Ons menu entry as well. Do the folks there have any better clues than I? The Add-Ons menu is created and maintained by SimConnect. If SimConnect isn't loading then you will not get an Add-Ons menu entry. It really does have to be your FSX installation gone wrong. Simconnect either isn't installed, or it is but in the wrong place or, less believably, the wrong version (only possible at present from a Beta FSX). Please also report all this to tell_fs@microsoft.com. They really do need to start helping with these problems, so the more reports (in as much detail as you can please) the better. Only that I think FSX may have been released too early. I'm afraid most add-ons -- all those that already do and soon will be using SimConnect -- just won't work until this is sorted. In my Installer I check these things BEFORE installing a program which simply won't work. It looks like FSCopilot and FSInn just install and hope for the best? I can't blame them. It was quite complex sorting out how to probe manifests for side-by-side installed DLLs like Simconnect. Regards, Pete

Because the file effectively contains random strings of bytes formed by Zipping a compressed EXE containing an encrypted set of files. Evidently your virus checker things one of those strings of bytes represents something in its list as a virus. It is not. It should be reported as an incorrect identification to your virus checking authority (though I doubt they'll do much). I use Norton Antivirus which is kept bang up to date. The EXE file in the ZIP is signed in any case. It cannot be tampered with without nullifying the signature, so just check the signature before running it. See my other reply. Pete

My file is signed in any case. Before running the EXE the downloader can just check the Certificate (right-click, Properties-Version-Signatures. If that shows a valid signature in my name, issued by GlobalSign (going into details now!) and timestamped by Verisgin, then that is total assurance that the file has not been tampered with. That's the point of signatures. Regards Pete

Got it now. I'll take a quick look now, but it is getting late so it may be morning before I get back to you. [LATER] No need to get back to you in the morning. There's definitely an FSX bug happening there. The FSUIPC log shows everything okay, it doesn't "disappear", it simply contines for the 10 minutes of your test session (599 seconds in fact), and terminates normally. However, the Simconnect log shows a different story. As I mentioned, FSUIPC only creates its menu entry once. That is done here, 13 seconds after FSX is started: > 13.10964 [63, 20]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="&FSUIPC ...", MenuEventID=10, dwData=0 > 13.10966 [63, 21]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="&Load Flight ...", MenuEventID=11, dwData=0 > 13.10967 [63, 22]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="Load Pla&n ...", MenuEventID=12, dwData=0 I see you've also enabled the options for the Flight and Plan loading entries. The SimConnect log runs fine for 505 seconds (up to less than two minutes before you closed FS -- was that when you saw that the Add-Ons menu had disappeared? The Simconnect ends abruptly with 505.47342 [63] I/O Error! .... and that's it. not very informative, but it seems that SimConnect just suffered an irrecoverable error and stopped working. thus, on the next menu re-draw it wasn't there to provide the Add-Ons entry. As well as this, FSUIPC4 would have effectively been left marooned with no access to FSX data! I'll report this with these details to Microsoft through my channels, but please also do so "officially" via tell_fs@microsoft.com, please. I can't really do anything about this myself, not unless Microsoft come up with a suggestion or solution, but I still think it is most likely related to your security software or its settings. You said earlier that you used AVG anti-virus (which others have reported as ok), and that you had "disabled" you firewall (what software though?). I know it isn't a good or nice thing to do, but if you could just try uninstalling all such software (just switching it off doesn't always seem to help) temporarily, it would prove it for MS attention. Please provide all those details in your report too. Reinstall afterwards, but maybe try to adjust the settings to make FSX completely trusted. This may be a "privacy" part of the firewall program rather than a straight firewall as such. Some programs seem to differentiate between these. Thanks, Pete

Not arrived here. Did you send to petedowson@btconnect.com? Can you try again? It may be tomorrow now before I can take a look. Regards Pete

Can't you simply disable or override your virus checker? It shouldn't stop you doing things you want to do with your own computer. I don't know any system like that. And surely you are not telling me that the virus checker stops you downloading but not receiving email copies of exactly the same file? That's a bit of a waste of a program isn't it -- surely the need is more vital in emails which you may receive involuntarily rather than in downloads which you are deliberately choosing? It seems to be designed backwards! Regards Pete

Sorry. My files are signed and secure. They are also compressed and encrypted. There's no virus. Your virus checker is giving a false reading. I cannot help, you have to sort out your virus checker or disable it. Regards Pete

4.02 not 44.02? ;-). Many years before we get to version 44! Anyway, my first reaction is AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! I assume your FSUIPC4 is not user registered? In my haste to stop the horrible 5-30 second delays suffered by some of those with third party security programs installed, I deliberately stopped the unregistered version of FSUIPC4 intercepting and forwarding axis controls -- thinking, of ocurse, that those were only of use to registered users, using the Joystick Calibration facilities. However, it is indeed possibly that part of that same interception facility is used by the PFC driver for throttles, and maybe some other exes. Grrr. This is a problem I shall have to think about before rushing into a solution. Each time I help one person I harm someone else. I need to slow down. Look out for a 4.021 or so soon. If I can't fix this today, I'll find a copy of 4.01 and place a link to it in the announcements. I cannot even look at present, sorry, I am off for a couple of hours. Regards Pete

FSUIPC4 only ever adds its menu entry ("FSUIPC", not "Add-Ons") once, and that is upon initialisation. It never deletes it. Something else must be going wrong, and, in fact, it must be an FSX bug. Can you show me any FSUIPC4 logs? A simconnect log might be useful too. you'll find instructions on how to get one of those eariler in this thread, I think. if not get back to me. Regards Pete

Thanks. Meanwhile I have been testing here too. On my slower development PC, where I have Norton active both as Antivirus and Firewall, I can see a degradation in FSX performance of atount 20% (15 down to 12 fps, for example). It is hard to jusge because the frame rate varies so much all the time, but that seems like the average. On a separate, more powerful, PC, with no firewall or antivirus software installed at all, and even with the default WinXP stuff disabled, I am still getting some measurable degradation. Not as much -- maybe 15% or so. The lowest FPS I saw was similar with or without FSUIPC4, but the peaks were certainly less with FSUIPC4 installed. This was certainly more than was noticeable durring Beta phases. I am quite cooncerned about this, as never in the seven years of FSUIPC have I ever been able to measure any consitent degradation caused by its installation. I don't like it at all. I shall tackle my Microsoft contacts about it, and also look at potential work-arounds. Short of hacking into the FSX code as in previous releases (something I am really loathe to do now), the could look at polling the gauge / panels interface for the more frequently changing values, instead of getting them via Simconnect. None of this is easy nor quick though. I shall study it and pursue the Microsoft folks about it and see what can be done. Hmm. I expect there's too much invested in the current methods. I think the best I can hope for is for the same interface to work more directly from an in-process program like FSUIPC4 (and of course the gauges which will be forthcoming which may also start using SimConnect for the extra data it can provide). Currently I face the same problems as any external Simconnect application would. Regards Pete

Okay. This is on client PC on your network, I assume? Have you registered WideFS? It won't work until you register. Of course! You aren't forced to use WideFS just because you install FSUIPC4! Whatever gave you such an idea? You can't even use WideFS unless you pay for it and register it using the Key you then receive Please tell mer how you are getting so confused so I can put it right. WideFS is only for folks with Networks who want to extend the FSUIPC interface to their other PCs! What WideFS program? It's a package with two parts, a Server and a Client. You already have WideClient (on your Client PCs I hope!). The latest WideServer is built into FSUIPC4, as it clearly says. All you need to do it to pay for it, register it, and, possibly, enable it -- on the About+Register options in FSUIPC4 you will see an "enable/disable" button once you register. Please do refer to the User Guide. I write the documentation and even include pictures to answer these sorts of questions. Regards Pete

So would I be. I cannot tell from your log, but it looks like a case of a Key being written incorrectly. It seems to be ASV6 (going by the process ID 2712 in the Log). It has one built in -- it should be writing it. I'm not sure why the same problem appears twice in your log either. Something seems to be messing things up a bit. No, the AIR file cannot access FSUIPC anyway -- the log is identifying ASV6 by the Process ID 2712. But possibly the panel loaded for that aircraft is causing a problem, though I don't understand how. Do you ever get it with other aircraft? On the second instance: 43500 Client Application: "ASv6" (Id=2712) 43500 G:\Flight Simulator 2004\Modules\ASv6\ASv6.exe 43500 Product="ActiveSky 6" 43500 Company="HiFi Simulation Software" 43500 Illegal write attempt: offset C800, size 1024 [P2712] 43500Program or module not accredited for use with this unregistered FSUIPC 48078 ### IPC Message processed in 6390mSecs ### 57563 Program [2712] "ASv6" access registration is okay it is odd that (a) the program appears to be Opening the FSUIPC link again, and (b) it fails by accessing C800 before it sends the access key, 9 seconds later, which is then accepted. I seem to remember something similar reported, something to do with ASV6's threads operating at different speeds and getting things in the wrong order occasionally? It may not actually have been ASV6, but it may be worth your while searching a bit. also see if you have the very latest update to ASV6 -- it may have been something noted and fixed. Please also check it with FSUIPC 3.709, available in the announcements above. Finally, for more information, you could enable IPC Read and IPC Write logging in FSUIPC's logging tab. That will make a much bigger log, so it will need Zipping and sending to petedowson@btconnect.com. That will show me precisely the order in which ASV6 is doing things, and the validity of the key it writes. Regards Pete

Good question. I honestly don't know. The arrangements are all done by SimMarket, and the processes are all automated so I don't know what they will accept. Can you try for the bundle and see if you get the bundle discount? Do this via the WideFS booth so that it has more chance of checking you as a qualifying customer. Let me know. If it works well and good. If it doesn't you can either go ahead or cancel out, I think, and then if you are unhappy I can write to the manager and ask exactly his intentions for such cases. To me it would seem reasonable to get a bundle discount as, after all, by buying FSUIPC and WideFS separately you paid full whack for each, but it is possible that the software behind the sales booths don't have such a sophisticated linkage and only see recent FSUIPC or WideFS or Bundle. Regards Pete

You do not need to register FSUIPC to use ASV, that is true. WideFS is a different facility, for those with Networks. It is certainly not necessary for ASV6. All versions of WideFS for the last three years have had to be registered to be used. It isn't a function of an application access. With so much to do, I always like to be to the point. I am not one for idle chit-chat. I'm sorry you don't like my style. Yes, that is exactly correct. Correct. You don't need a registration for FSUIPC4 unless you want to use the user facilities in FSUIPC. this has always been the case for FSUIPC3 too. Now how do you derive that from anything I've said? That is most certainly not true and never has been. It is made quite clear that is not the case, as you yourself have just asserted. How do you get so mixed up on this? I don't understand. Regards Pete

Changing over from the direct access methods I used in FS2004 and before to using SimConnect, which is an asynchronous interface using, of all things, TCP/IP, I was certainly rather worried about the affect this would have on performance -- not only the frame rate impact, but also the latency (delay between things changing and applications seeing them change, and vice versa for inputs to FS). However, I have been pleasantly surprised by how well it works, and without measurable impact on the three systems I've tried it on. This has also been confirmed by others during the Beta testing. Your symptoms do sound suspiciously like another possible effect from third party security software. I've already written up three probably more immediately noticeable effects which have been resported so far and which have been proven to be due to antivirus, firewall or privacy software hooks and settings. Check the latest readme and the "Important" announcement above. Maybe you have discovered another? With that in mind could you please tell me exactly what security software you have installed, and then see if disabling it, or even (temporarily) uninstalling it, restores your performance? Regards Pete

Right. I will replace it at some stage, but it is in fact 4.02 -- if you run FSX you'll see it identified correctly in the "About+Register" options page, and also in the Log file. It identifies itself correctly to attaching appliocations too. It seems, somehow, that the Properties-Version information wasn't updated in the Resources. I don't quite understand why. It's something I'll need to cross-check in future builds. Maybe my VS2005 settings doesn't have all the correct files listed for change-checks. The coincidence in size isn't surprising. Most compiled modules come out at an even multiple of some value, not sure what. The version 4.015 you had is "almost" 4.02 -- I think the only differences are the additional offsets mentioned in trhe changes. Thanks for heads up! Pete

No. sorry. Not sure what happened there. I'll re-check the link and rebuild in needed. Stand by please! Pete

Okay, I'm back earlier than I expected. As it looks like the link from Enrico's hotel room wasn't good enough to complete the upload to the "Dowson" page yet, I've made 4.02 available through a link in the Announcement above. This is temporary until I'm sure the Schiratti link is correctly operational. (A lot of other sites link to there so it is important that it works). Regards Pete

Yes. Didn't you even look at the FSUIPC options (in the Add-Ons menu in FSX). Did it not say it was unregistered? When it is registered it will say so, then you can enable it and disable it on that first options page. Even if you have a casual glance at the log you supplied and displayed here (see above), it clearly shows Didn't you spot this clue either? Please refer to the User Guide, supplied as a PDF in the ZIP and also as a DOC installed into the modules folder. It does tell you these things. With FSUIPC4 and WideFS7 you can even disable WideFS, change the parameters (now in the FSUIPC4.INI file) then re-enable it without closing FSX. That too is explained. Regards Pete

No. Actually I did say "is being made available" which means I shipped it off to Mr. Schiratti. I must have missed him. Being Saturday evening I expect he's out. Maybe he'll put it up when he gets back later tonight, or else it'll be tomorrow. If it isn't up tomorrow morning I'll temporarily put it on the FTP site here. [LATER] Ahajust heard from Enrico. He's at an FS conference in Paderborn. He's going to do the business from his hotel room, so you should see it soon. don't froget to refresh toyr web page! I'm off for the rest of the evening too now. g'night! Pete

Ah, right. Glad you found it! Pete