Trinidad Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 I have been using EFBv2 for several years and did not change anything to my settings, neither did I change any Windows settings on my server and client PC. I made a flight with MSFS yesterday with no issue, EFB worked fine. This morning I fired up MSFS, EFB Server, and EFB Client. But the Client would not be able to connect to the Server. Tired of trying to figure what happened, I gave up and started my flight all the same without EFB, but I left it open with the black screen. After a while I realised that having no map available to fly the DC6 was not exactly wise and I closed MSFS when I was climbing to my flight level. I reopened MSFS and again Server and Client, no luck, black screen, connection impossible. I checked if my settings on the Server PC had been reset, nope, on the Client, nope. I reintroduced the IP code of my Server on the Client settings, no connection... Then I changed the IP with the name of my Server PC and ... it worked BUT amazingly (MSFS being closed at that time), EFB showed me the map of the airport I just took off from and the exact location where I had abandoned my flight a few miles away from the runway on my climb!!! How can this be since my Client "could not connect to the Server" at that time? Can anyone explain this mystery in layman terms please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aivlasoft Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Hi Jean-Claude If I understand what you described above then the EFB Server location (on Client side) was given as an IP-address, not as a computer name. After the connection between the Client and the Server did not work, you changed the Server location from 'IP-address' to 'computer name', then the connection worked. Am I right so far? A possible explanation could be as follows (I'm trying to explain it in layman terms): The network configuration of each computer in a local network allows to select whether the IP-address of the computer is fixed or variable, where 'fixed' means that you assign an IP-address manually, and 'variable' means that the IP-address is assigned from an instance outside of your computer, but within your local network. This 'instance' is called 'DHCP server' and usually (in a private home network) this is handled by the router. Most of the routers today have a built-in DHCP functionality. I assume that your computers are configured to get a dynamic IP-address from the DHCP-Server. IP-addresses provided by a DHCP-Server will have a so called 'lease-time' which is more or less an 'expiry date'. In a simplified manner this means that the EFB Server's IP-address will change from time to time. I assume that in the scenario which you described, the Server got a new IP-address and therefore the Client could no longer establish a connection using the old, expired IP-address. As soon as you changed the EFB Server's location from 'IP-address' to 'Computer name', the current and valid IP-address for the EFB Server was requested internally from the so called DNS service (domain name system) which 'looks' for the IP-address of a given computer name. This service will always provide the current IP-address and therefore it is more flexible to define the EFB Server's location as a 'Computer name' than as 'IP-address'. There are also possibilities to configure a DHCP server in a way that some IP-addresses (or even IP-address-ranges) will not be changed, but that's another story. On 11/25/2021 at 4:42 PM, Trinidad said: BUT amazingly (MSFS being closed at that time), EFB showed me the map of the airport I just took off from and the exact location Don't forget, even if the Client is not connected to the Server, the Server 'knows' where your aircraft is. As soon as the Client connects with the Server, the Client receives the current position and data of the aircraft. This is one of the advantages of a 'Server-Client' architecture. Hope this is not too confusing ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 18 hours ago, aivlasoft said: Am I right so far? Yes indeed. Many thanks for this explanation Urs, I believe I could understand most of it... In any case, this is what I experienced with this sudden refusal to connect with the Server after several years of use. Thanks to you, I know a little bit more about this phenomenon and will be less stressed the next time, whenever that may be! 18 hours ago, aivlasoft said: this is handled by the router I also think - after reading your message - that my router was the culprit as I had to reinitialise it on that same morning, I initially did not make the link. 18 hours ago, aivlasoft said: the Server 'knows' where your aircraft is I missed that point, the Server knew what the Client did not see... Again thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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