Flight Simulator Multiplayer Tutorial

This tutorial is designed to help you get started flying in multiplayer games. It focuses primarily on Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2002 (FS2002), Flight Simulator 2004 (FS2004), and Flight Simulator X (FSX), and explains how to connect to a multiplayer session on an FSHost server.

Connecting to an FSHost server

FSHost is my multiplayer server for FS2002, FS2004, and FSX. It has lots of new features, including the ability to have more than 16 players in a game, kick and ban, Chat Commands, Pilot Logs, Flight Plans, and lots more. If you want to host your own session, you can download it for free from the FSHost web site.

If you just want to join someone else's session, the easiest way to find a game is to use my FSHostSpy program, which you can download for free from the FSHostSpy web site. It'll show you all the sessions currently running (there are usually more than 150 at any given time), as well as which players are already connected, what they're flying, where they are, etc. Once you find a game to join, double-click the session name, and the host's IP address will be copied to your clipboard. (An IP address is the unique address of the host's computer on the internet -- something like 11.22.33.44)

If you're using FSX, skip the rest of this section and jump down to A note about FSX.

To connect to the game in FS2002 or FS2004, start FS yourself and click "Multiplayer" on the left side of the start screen (or if you're already in the plane, click the Flights menu, then Multiplayer, and then Connect -- press the Alt key if you don't see the Flights menu at the top left). Enter your player name, select TCP/IP (if you're using FS2002), and enter the IP address listed for that game, by clicking in the IP address box and typing Ctrl-v to paste it in (or you can just type it in manually). Click Search and wait a couple seconds, then you should see a session name listed. Click Join to connect to the session.

After connecting, you'll be back at the same Multiplayer start page again. Click the "Chat" button to open the Chat window (or if you're already in the plane, press the Enter key to open the chat window). Ask the other players for a starting airport "ID". This is usually a 3- or 4-letter code, such as KLAX for Los Angeles.

Then click "Create A Flight" on the left side of the Multiplayer start page, and setup your flight. You'll probably want to change the airport to whatever airport ID the other players told you. To do that, click the "Change" button under "Current Location", and then enter the ID in the "Airport ID" box. Note that the ID box is the second box, not the first. If you know the name, you can use the first box instead, but many people find it easier to refer to airports by ID. After you type in the airport ID, it should show the name of the airport at the top of the "Search Results" list -- this is how you know you've typed it in correctly. If it doesn't find it, make sure you don't have a particular region or country specified (you want it to use all regions and all countries as you type in the airport ID). If the airport is a large one, it may have gates you can start at. This is always a good idea to check, because it means you don't have to start on the runway, where someone might be in the middle of taking off! :-) In the bottom left of the window, there's a box called "Runway / Starting Position". Click the arrow next to that box, and see if there are any gates or ramps you can start at. You may need to scroll down a bit to get past the runways, which usually look like "25" or "18R", etc.

After you've set the airport ID, and possibly a gate or ramp to start on, click OK, and you'll be back at the Multiplayer start page. You can also change your aircraft, weather, and date/time. You may want to be sure that the time is during the day, unless you specifically want to fly at night. When everything's setup, click "Fly Now" to go to the plane. Once there, if there are other planes nearby, you should see them, with the pilot's name over the top of the plane. If the airport wasn't big enough to have gates or ramps, then you'll now be sitting on the runway, and you should attempt to clear it as soon as possible, in case someone's waiting to take off or land. Once you see who's in the area, you can taxi back onto the runway and take off.

It's very bad form to just jump onto a runway and sit there while other people are waiting to take off -- and even worse if they're about to land. If you're not sure, use the chat window to ask if it's ok to join on the runway. To open the chat window from inside the plane, just press the Enter key.

A note about FSX...

If you're using FSX, you'll need my FSHostClient program to be able to connect to an FSHost server. That page also explains how to install it and how to connect to an FSHost server. FSHostClient is only for people running FSX that want to connect to an FSHost server. FS2002 and FS2004 users don't need it, although players from all three games will still be able to fly together and see each other in the game.

Problems when using a router...

If you're using a router, or you're on a network with a shared internet connection, you may have various types of connection problems. For example, you might get the dreaded "Unable to connect to all players" error in FS2004 when connecting to a session, or players might get randomly disconnected from your FSHost session.

You (and all players joining your FSHost session) will need to "forward" several "ports" in the router and/or firewall, so that Flight Simulator can communicate correctly with the outside world. Think of ports sort of like doors into a house. Different programs use different ports, and sometimes the router isn't initially setup to handle incoming connections on those ports. So when data comes in on one of those ports, the router doesn't know what to do with it and the data gets lost. The solution is to go into the router or firewall configuration and tell it to "forward" data on certain ports to the machine running Flight Simulator or FSHost. You do this by entering the port number, the protocol type (either TCP or UDP), and the "internal" IP address of the PC running Flight Simulator or FSHost.

The "internal" IP address is your PC's address on your local network. It's only valid with your router and any other PCs on your local network, not with other computers on the internet, which use your "external" IP address. You can find your internal IP by clicking the Windows Start button, then go to Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt, and typing "ipconfig" to display your IP address -- typically it will begin with "192.168", such as 192.168.1.100, etc. You can find your external IP address, which other users should use when connecting to your FSHost session, by going to www.whatismyip.com.

The network ports that need to be forwarded in your router to the PC running Flight Simulator or FSHost are:

FS2002:
TCP 47624
UDP 2300 to 2400

FS2004 and FSX:
UDP 23456 (or the "2004 host port" on FSHost's Server / Options / Session tab)
UDP 6073
UDP 2302 to 2400 (not necessary if also forwarding 2300 to 2400 for FS2002)

FSHost's Remote (web) Access, and for FSHostSpy to be able to find your FSHost session:
TCP 80 (or the Remote Access port on FSHost's Server / Options / Remote Access tab)

You can get more help on forwarding ports in your particular router at wwww.portforward.com.

I've also created a program called FSPortTest that you can run on your PC to check to see if you have all the ports forwarded correctly in your router. This program was originally introduced in this topic in the FSHost forums, where you can find a lot more information about the program and port forwarding in general.

Other notes...

To find your own IP address, go to: www.whatismyip.com
There's a bug in the FS2002 chat window that causes it to not automatically scroll to the bottom when new text is displayed. Also, the window keeps disappearing unless you turn off "Full Screen" from the View menu in FS2002. I made a little program called FSChatScroll that fixes both problems.
You can use a voice program to talk to the ATC controllers, although some ATC sessions do allow you to just use the chat window. Many ATC sessions use the voice program TeamSpeak. You'll want to set it up for "push to talk" mode, which means you press a key on the keyboard to talk to the controller. Check the session's rules for details of what program they use and how to connect to their voice server. A headset with a built-in microphone works best, because you don't get the echo that's generally a problem with a microphone and separate speakers.

Happy multiplayer flying...

Russell ("OzzieYank", online)

Feedback welcome