Line Operations Handleiding

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Pagina is onder constructie. Informatie is onderhevig aan wijzigingen.

Deze pagina beschrijft in functionaliteit welke nog in ontwikkeling is. Hierdoor kan de geboden informatie onvolledig zijn of onjuistheden bevatten.

Notes/to be added:

• port forwarding requires TCP and UDP
• one port (default 55386) is for others to connect with their simulation to your Stellwerk simulation
• passive port (default 55387) is for Line Operations Viewer communication
• keep in mind that for Multiplayer sessions, a different port then the default is needs to be used as well i.e. 55388, to avoid conflicts
• Line Operations Viewer / Supervisor is free to download and used to see which Line Operation server are running
• Statusses
• red = no port forwarding detected, no sim data received
• yellow = either port forwarding detected OR sim data received, but not both
• green = port forwarding OK, AND sim data received

Introductie

Some of the Stellwerk simulations can be connected together so that you can dispatch traffic sent to you by other people via the Internet.

Connecting to other simulations is usually easy; enabling this feature requires sometimes requires some configuration of your firewall and router.

There are a couple of possibilities to setup, to join or to view a Line Operation:

The Dispatcher Supervisor is used to ...

• ... view an existing line operation, to have a global overview over what is happening where on the line.
• ... easily connect to an existing line operation session.

Setting up a new Line operation is done from within a Signal box simulation which features Line operation. There are two options:

• setting up a new Line Operation in Easy mode: this will publish your Line Operation in the Dispatcher Supervisor as well, so that other can join easily as well
• setting up a new Line Operation in Expert mode : setup a Line Operation for within your own network environment. Others needed to know your server details to join in.

Joining an existing Line Operation can also be done from within a simulation which features Line operation. The two options are:

• Viewing an existing Line Operation : this will actually bring you back to the Dispatcher Supervisor, from where you select which Line operation you want to join.
• Manually join an existing Line Operation : if you know the server details of the neighbouring signal box, you can configure and connect your simulation to connect to that signal box.

Zaken die je moeten Weten en Doen alvorens te Beginnen

Poorten

Wanneer een computer via een netwerk gegevens stuurt naar of ontvangt van een andere computer, dan gebeurd dit via specifieke poorten. Netwerk poorten zijn niet zoals fysieke poorten aan de achterzijde van je computer zoals aansluitingen voor muis en toetsenbord. Netwerk poorten zijn "software adressen" die ervoor dat de data naar specifieke computer programma's op de doelmachine worden gestuurd.

Als je op het web surft met een browser, terwijl je tegelijkertijd aan het chatten bent met behulp van een Instant Messaging applicatie, zal de web data naar een andere poort gestuurd worden dan de binnenkomende data van de persoon waarmee je aan het chatten bent.

De Post T / Stellwerk simulatie programma's verwachten dat data binnenkomt via een specifieke poort – je kan aangeven welke poort gebruikt moet worden, maar standaard wordt poort 55386 gebruikt.

Post T / Stellwerk simulaties gebruiken standaard poort 55386 voor inkomend dataverkeer.

Port Forwarding

In een typisch LAN fungeert de router als een gateway tussen computers in dat netwerk, en andere machines buiten het LAN. Normaal gesproken worden verzoeken om gegevens van buiten een LAN door de router om beveiligingsredenen geblokkeerd.

Om de router te instrueren dat het dataverkeer bestemd voor de Post T / Stellwerk simulaties moet worden toegestaan, dient port forwarding ingeschakeld te worden. In eenvoudige bewoordingen: de router moet verteld worden dat het dataverkeer via een specifieke poort (in dit geval 55386) moet/mag worden doorgestuurd naar een specifiek IP-adres (= het IP adres van jouw conputer).

Raadpleeg de handleiding van je router, of bezoek PortForward.Com om te zien of jouw router daar vermeld wordt. Hieronder wordt een voorbeeld van port forwarding gegeven:

De simulatie maakt uitsluitend gebruik van TCP voor alle multiplayer netwerkverkeer. De computer waar de data naar doorgestuurd wordt opgegeven middels het IP adres van de computer. Het wordt aangeraden om je computer een vast (statisch) IP adres te geven – raadpleeg de handleiding van het besturingssysteem (bijv. Windows XP, Vista, Win7) over hoe een statisch (vast) IP adres ingesteld kan worden. Zie ook de sectie Andere nuttige bronnen voor aanvullende online informatie bronnen die je kunnen helpen bij he instellen van eeen statische IP adres en poort forwarding.

Firewalls

Op computers is meestal firewall software geïnstalleerd en geconfigureerd (eerlijk gezegd zou dit zo moeten zijn) om extra netwerkbeveiliging te bieden. Als je gebruik maakt van een firewall op jouw computer, dien je ervoor te zorgen dat de poort die je gebruikt (meestal 55386) geopend is. Als dit niet het geval, zal niemand in staat zijn met jouw (seinhuis simulatie) server te verbinden.

Sommige firewalls kunnen detecteren wanneer een applicatie een bepaalde poort nodig heeft, en zal vriendelijk om jouw toestemming vragen de poort te mogen openen. Raadpleeg de handleiding van jouw firewall software voor hoe een poort toe te voegen.

Dispatcher Supervisor (Line Operations viewer)

The Supervisor is a tool which gives you an graphical overview of an active Line Operation session, thus shows where the trains are and which routes have been set by the dispatchers of the various signal boxes. It gives you the following options:

• monitor your own Line Operations or the one you joined;
• check with Line Operations are active, and if one of the signal boxes that can be part of the Line Operation is not hooked up yet, to join that session instantaniously

The Dispatcher Supervisor is a free tool that can be downloaded from the Signalsoft website. Note: At the moment you want to join a Line Operation and you haven't the Supervisor application installed , you will be reminded to download the Supervisor application and be forwarded to the download link.

The start screen of the Supervisor is as follows:

The start screen has the following options available:

• Settings : port settings for Line Operation communications
• About : information about the Dispatcher Supervisor tool and installed simulation that can be used with it
• View Available lines : view the current active Line Operation sessions
• Language : change your language setting here

Settings

When you are going to use the Dispatcher Supervisor for the first time, you must check your settings first. Under Settings you have to define which Port the Supervisor tool has to use for viewing the available lines. For this, you must have a port opened, using the UDP protocol, on both your router as well as in your firewall.

The Supervisor tool uses port 55385 (UDP protocol) by default for viewing available lines.

Use the Test button to check if your port setting is working.

About

The About button will open a window showing for which simulations which simulation applications are installed.

Remagen, Bonn, and Bonn-Bad Godesberg *must* be installed and licensed in order to join. Otherwise, the user may only view.

View Available lines

When you select the View Available lines a new window will open, showing all the currently active Line Operation session.

The following information is shown per listed Line Operation session:

• Name : as configured by the person who started the Line Operation.
• Line : the line, i.e. Remagen - Bonn , the session is running for.
• Dispatchers : the number of dispatchers connected to the session. Could also be read as the number of signal boxes (simulations) already connected to the session.
• Up time : the time that the session is running
• Last activity : the time since the last moment one of the dispatcher has taken action on his signal box.
• Password : a symbol that indicates if a session requires a password or not to join in.

The Refresh button can be pressed to update the list of available lines.

Select one of the available lines and then press the View button to see the details of that Line Operation session.

Open and Password protected Line Operations

Someone who organizes a Line Operation session may decide to add a password to his session. There can be many reasons for doing so, but one of the reasons could be that the organizer wants only people he invited to join in.

You can recognize if a Line Operation session is password protected or not by means of the following icons.

Icon	Meaning	Description
	No password	The listed Line Operation is freely accessible to join in
	Password required	The listed Line Operation requires a password to be able to join in. The person who has initially started the Line operation has to provide this password.

Viewing a Line Operation

When you have choosen to view an existing line operation, you will get a window like shown on the picture below.

In this example you are viewing a line operation between Bonn Hbf and Remagen. You can see where the trains, the signal states and which routes have been set.

Note: Signals showing grey states are the first indication that that part of the line is not being operated by a player yet

On the bottom right an icon is shown, which tells you your connection status with the current line operation. See below in the section Statusses of Dispatcher Supervisor

On the bottom left you will have buttons with the abbreviation of each signalbox that can or is connected to the current line operation. In these buttons, you will also notice some colored status indications. More on this below in the section Stations/signal boxes

The button Shunt signals allows you to toggle the view between hiding or showing the state of the Shunt signals.

Statusses of Dispatcher Supervisor

On the bottom right an icon is shown, which tells you your connection status with the current line operation. If the icon is showing anything else then the green icon, you are likely to have a problem with your port settings or firewall. The viewer will show no data or incorrect data in that case.

Next to this status indication you will also see two letters flashing :

• 'S' : The Dispatcher Supervisor application is sending data to the connected simulations of this Line Operation (actually just asking for updated data)
• 'R' : The Dispatcher Supervisor application is receiving data from the connected simulations of this Line Operation (actually getting the shown viewing data)

Icon	Meaning	Description
	Error	This is typically an error state - no port forwarding detected and/or no sim data received. Something is seriuously wrong.
	Faults	either port forwarding detected OR sim data received, but not both.
	OK	port forwarding OK, AND sim data received.

Stations/signal boxes

The station buttons, or better signal box buttons, have a couple of purposes:

1. to show if a signal box is already occupied by a player, and thus showing if the signal box is taking part in the Line operation
2. to connect to the line operation yourself, with the selected signal box simulation. Of course, you *must* have the selected signal box simulation installed and licensed in order to be able to join in.

If you decide to join a Line operation, click the appropiate button. Your simulation will be started automatically and connect to the Line Operation session. You can only connect to a direct neighbour. For example: If Remagen is occupied, and the rest not, you can only connect with the Bonn-Bad Godesberg simulation and not with Bonn Hbf. Line Operation requires a chain of connected signal boxes, so no gaps in between.

Note: before joining a line operation you must have set the proper port settings in the simulation itself. How this is done is described in one of the sections below.

Icon	Meaning	Description
	Occupied	The signalbox is already part of the current line operation. (read: someone else has already connected to the Line Operation with this Signalbox simulation.
	Unknown	The signalbox is already part of the current line operation. The status for this signalbox is uncertain, thus train locations and routes being set might not be shown or are shown incorrectly.
	Free	Indicates that the signalbox for this part of the running Line Operation is available. You can join in with this signalbox simulation. Of course, you *must* have the simulation installed and licensed in order to join. Click the button to connect to the Line Operation with your simulation.

Starting Line Operations

After starting the simulator application, locate the "Line Operations" button with the green and black icon. Press this button to begin configuring Line Operations.

You will be given a choice: do you want to start a new line operation, or join an existing one?

• Starting New Line Operations will start your own Line Operations to which others can join
• View existing Line Operations will start the Supervisor application. From there you can also join an existing Line Operations
• Join an existing Line Operation will let you join an existing Line Operations, however requiring some manually actions from your end.

Starting New Line Operations

You will have to possibities when you choose to Start new Line Operations:

• Begin Line Operations: this is the easy mode to setup new Line Operations
• Begin (Expert) : here you have more control on how the Line Operations is setup, i.e. for LAN only. Other users need to know your server details to be able to connect.

Begin Line Operations (Easy mode)

To start New Line Operations in easy mode, make sure you have selected the tab 'Begin Line Operations'

Fill in your Full Name, your Line Name and a Password (optional: if you want to protect your session with a password) Then press the Setup Line Operations button

The message "OK ... Press 'Start' should now appear, and Green border around the Start button should appear.

If all your ports are properly configured, the simulation will start.

Manually Starting a Line Operation

From the Begin Expert tab, select Query IP Address.

Choose your IP address. If on a LAN, select your 192.168.X.X address. Use 127.0.0.1 if you want to connect two simulations on the same computer. You probably want to use a WAN address, which will allow other people to connect to you via the Internet. To do so, choose Detect to determine your WAN address.

When you have selected your IP address, choose Use.

The Start! button should now have a green border, indicating that your connection information is valid.

The rest of the simulation starting procedure remains the same.

Manually Joining a Line Operation

From the Join Expert tab, enter the server code given to you by the person you are connecting to.

Choose Query IP Address.

Choose your IP address. If on a LAN, select your 192.168.X.X address. Use 127.0.0.1 if you want to connect two simulations on the same computer. You probably want to use a WAN address, which will allow other people to connect to you via the Internet. To do so, choose Detect to determine your WAN address.

When you have selected your IP address, choose Use.

The Start! button should now have a green border, indicating that your connection information is valid.

For layouts with more than one Line Operation connection, that is, more than one neighbour, you must indicate which connection you wish to make.

If connecting was successful, your simulation will start.

Line Operation options while in simulation

Whilst you are actually running your simulation you have various options with respect to the status of your signal box as a server for the Line operation and connection statusses.

Line Operation Status

To view the current status of Line Operations, use the Line Operations > Status... menu item. Here, you can retrieve your current server code (if you forgot to copy it when originally starting Line Operations) or the Line Operation password, if one is defined.

Statusbalk

Als een Baanvak actief is zal er een icoon verschijnen in de statusbalk. Hieronder de verschillende statussen die getoond kunnen worden:

Icoon	Betekenis	Beschrijving
	Fout	Dit is een typische fout status - er is iets serieus niet in orde is. Soms betekent het dat het systeem op een bepaalde gebeurtenis wacht. Als het icoon blijft staan is het zeer onwaarschijnlijk dat iemand met je server kan verbinden
	Niet verbonden	Dit icoon wordt getoond nadat de sessie gestart is - de sessie is actief maar er is niemand verbonden
	Verbonden	Dit geeft het aantal deelnemers dat verbonden is aan.

If you have are also running your simulation as a Dispatcher Center, you will have a second icon next to it. That icon shows the number of assistant dispatchers that have connected to your signalbox via the Multiplayer client.

Ending Line Operations

To stop all Line Operations, use the Seinhuizen koppelen > Einde menu item. Any connected neighbours will be disconnected. Rail traffic will appear not via the Internet, but from the timetable (as it does normally).

Inhoud | Sp Dr S 60 | Handleiding | FAQ | Multiplayer Handleiding | Line Operations Handleiding | Spraakcommunicatie | Lijst van wijzigingen | Developers pages