multiplayer help please

[catcando]

I have a friend who is having a problem connecting with FS 2002 in multiplayer mode. He is using W XP Home on a P IV 2.8, 512mb ram, GF 4. His firewall is turned off as is the AV. He is also using RogerWilco.
When he inputs all the server info Roger Wilco hooks up and he can chat with the other flyers, but he cannot see them or they him.
MS Flight Sim shows him connected.
He is on an AOL dial up connection.
He has another computer which is a PIII 800 with W 98se and with all the same settings in MS Flight Sim 2002 and Roger Wilco, everything works fine, and he goes off and flies with the other players.
Any idea why he cannot connect on the XP machine?
The FS 2002 is a paid for and registered full retail cd.
Any help would be appreciated.

PS
He doesn't like XP and wants to remove it and go back to W 98se because of problems like this.

Thanks

[ozzy72]

Has he turned off the XP internal firewall? As this causes a lot of problems in MP games.
I've never used RogerWilco, but with Vatsim and FSHost I find this cures any problems.
He might also want to get on the ramp before connecting to the session, as this can help overcome problems if he has to go through a router.

Ozzy

[catcando]

Thanks for the reply.
I have W XP Pro and I have never been able to find the "built in firewall". I don't play online, so it's never been an issue. How do I get to it?
He always starts his sessions on the end of the runway

[FSTipster]

Control Panel/Network and Internet Connections/Network Connections

You'll see the AOL dial up icon.

Right click it - select "Properties" then click the Advanced tab at the far right.

It's the check box at the top. If it's checked, uncheck it. If it isn't, the firewall isn't causing your problem.

[catcando]

Thanks for the reply FS2002tipster. My son who knows(or thought he knew) MS XP Pro well and plays a lot of online games, did not know that there was an in built firewall on XP Pro.
I have sent this info to my friend. I bet this does the trick.
Thanks

[FSTipster]

Hope it does the trick for your friend.

XP's firewall is actually excellent at it's job. Unfortunately, it's a bit too good sometimes and unless you really know your way around windows, it's very difficult to get it to allow through what you want it to.

It's a pity they didn't build a better front end to it to allow users the option of pressing a button to allow something through if they chose to. I'm reliably informed that it can be done, but it's not for the faint-hearted lol.

[catcando]

Well, it isn't Windows built in firewall. He has also tried a fresh install of MS FS, and that didn't work either(on the multiplayer hook up I mean).
Any more ideas on why he is not able to do multiplayer on his W XP machine?
The Roger Wilco program is a radio program that allows you to talk to the other participants and the tower etc. It requires the same server as FS and it works fine. He can chat in real time to the other fliers.
He just cannot get FS to connect(even though the program says it is).
Thanks for any help

[cratermaker]

This is a known problem for user who just recently installed CSF3 or more specificly DirectPlay 8.2 that comes with CSF3.  Users can see the session and apparently join, bu the game chat window doesnt show them and the game can not see them when there are other players already signed on the server.  You will not have any of these symtoms when the server is empty.

The cause of it steems from the introduction of UPnP(Universal Plug and Play) with XP SP1. Unfortunately, DirectX8.1 and early version do not contain support fo this new architecture default as they were released prior to this change.

Uninstall CSF3, them upgrade to DX9.  Test the mutiplayer.  If all is well, and only then reinstall CSF3, but in a different partition.

Hope that helps.