Connection to Prepar3d when using FMGS on a separate PC

[Limelines]

Hi JeeHell,
I was just wondering if you have any ideas about what might be causing this issue.

Setup (Firewalls are off):
Prepared PC - Runs Prepar3d V5, Simconnect Server
JeeHell PC - Run FMGS server, OVH, Hardward connect, etc

With Prepared running unpaused, we start JeeHell on the second PC; all the processes start up, but the FMGS Server does not connect to the Perpared3d PC. To connect it, I need to close FXConnect.exe, reopen it, and then FMGS Server connects.

I initially thought it was a sequencing issue, but I'm unsure. I can write a script to close FXConnect.exe and reopen it, but I thought I ask if you had any ideas on how to fix this.

[jeehell]

do you start the FMGS suite AFTER P3D has been running for some time?
Do you use admin rights?

[Limelines]

Hi JL,
Generally, we launch Prepar3d V5 first, then open JeeHell on the second computer. Yep, we are running the starter as administrator. I've had a couple of times where it would not connect, and I had to restart Prepar3d several times.

I'm considering re-installing prepar3d, but I thought I'd check if something else might be the cause.

Additional details:
- Simconnect on the Prepar3d PC is configured for (Global) IPV4 on port 9017.
- JeeHell SimConnect points to the Prepare3d PC IPv4 address on port 9017.
- FSUIPC runs on the Prepar3d PC and WideFS on the JeeHell PC to accommodate the Skalarki Profiler (Overhead, Glare).

Thanks,
Jamie

[Limelines]

HI,
I've spent some more time looking at this and have changed the Simconnect port to 2048 to align with the setup of FSCommander, and it connects fine; however, after updating the Simconnect.cfg IPv4 port to 2048 in the FMGSServer folder, it still does not connect when starting JeeHell with the starter (run as admin).

Closing and restarting FXConnect generally works, but not always.

My next step is to look at the traffic at that port from the JeeHell PC.

Does anyone have any other thoughts?

[saustin89]

Hi Jean-Luc,
We've been working on the issue this evening and we've got more info.
We installed wireshark to monitor the traffic and when the Starter.exe is executed as admin, there is no communicated registed on either TCP or UDP to the P3d machine IP address on any port. However, after closing and re-opening the FXConnect.exe process. We see the SYN and the ACK then the constant traffic occurs on the SimConnect port.

We've tried two machines now and are currently using Prepar3d v. 5.3.17.28160; Simconnect v5.3.0.0. We are going to upgrade Prepar3d however, considering there is no request from Jeehell to Prepar3d on the network at startup we don't think its going to help.

Please let us know if you have any thoughts?

[Limelines]

We updated Prepar3d; however, that did not resolve the issue. We have a workaround: open FXConnect first and then JeeHell via Starter.exe. We use the task scheduler in Windows to automate this when logged in.

Note: For anyone else using the task schedule, the action section needs to include the 'start at' which should be the PATH to the JeeHell install

[jeehell]

could it be an admin right mismatch somewhere?

[balu69]

Hello
Were you able to solve your problem? Jean-Luc once wrote to me that the network profile (on Windows 10) on both devices should be "Private" and not "Public". Maybe this will help?

[Limelines]

Thanks, balu69 and JL, for getting back to me. Both good suggestions
Both machines' networks are configured as private networks, and both PC IPs are part of the same subnet. Thanks for the suggestion.

Re Administrator, when I look at the processes in the process explorer, I see that they both run with elevated privileges. See attached:

Processes.jpg

I tried this on a second machine, and there are no requests to the prepar3d PC until fxconnect.exe is closed and re-opened.

Steps:
1. JeeHell was installed with "run as administrator"
2. Starter properties were edited to mark as 'run as administrator'

When running via the task scheduler, the task was marked to run with "highest privilege".

Currently, the workaround works, but I am not sure of the cause of this one.

[jeehell]

can you try starting without admin rights?

[Limelines]

Yep, we can give it a go. I'm pretty sure we tried this, but I will confirm.

[jtec]

Hello.

Same behavior in a very similar setup (PC for P3D, PC for FMGS 61.10, same network, FMGS launched as administrator, firewalls off).

Stopping FSXConnect and launching it again, FMGS connects correctly with P3D. Same behavior whether FMGS is launched as administrator or not.

Regards,
Jose

P.D.: JL, any chance of getting offsets for the chronometer digits?

[jtec]

Hello!

I think I’ve found something that could be interesting to figure out the issue.

I was preparing a PowerShell script to launch Starter.exe (and SIOC) after checking that P3D was responding on the SimConnect port, and to kill the FSXConnect process and relaunch it.

FMGS only connects to P3D when it's invoked from the script with -WorkingDirectory pointing to the FMGS Server directory. Otherwise, it behaves like when it's launched by Starter.exe.

Regards,
Jose

[jeehell]

that is a nice catch. It could very well be the culprit. Start defaults the working directory of all apps to it's own working directory. I fixed that, please test this starter:
https://www.jeehell.org/Starter.exe

[jtec]

Hello.

Yes, with this version of Starter.exe, the connection to P3D works fine.

Regards,
Jose