Windows Firewall

Having trouble with the Windows Firewall blocking a connection?

This troubleshooting guide explains how to get the Windows Firewall to allow a connection between FSWidgets apps and the flight simulator.

What is the Objective?

The overall purpose of this guide is to:

  1. Delete or clear any existing Firewall Rule(s)
  2. Force a new Windows Security Alert and click the Allow Access button

This will refresh these settings completely and has solved 99% of the cases reported to us. The other 1% involved a mix of overly strict or incorrect router settings, not having Wi-Fi turned on and being on a separate or wrong Wi-Fi network.

Before you start, please make sure you have FSWidgets Connect installed.

Note: Aerofly FS has FSWidgets Connect built in to the sim and does not require any additional plugin.

Select your OS:

Windows 11

Windows 8 or 10

Windows 7

Note: These guides provide help for configuring the default Windows Firewall only. If you have an additional layer of security via a third-party firewall (AVG, Avast, Norton, etc.) you may need to add an explicit rule that unblocks the simulator and the FSWidgets Connect service (FSWidgetsConnect.exe), or in the case of FS9 & XPlane 9/10, the legacy FSWidgets Network utility (FSWNetHost.exe).

- FSWidgets