Troubleshooting
From FreeHost
If you seek answers to questions not related to technical issues, check the FAQ section. If your problems aren't solved here, ask for help in the Forum.
Game run
The game in Direct3D mode crashes when I switch planes
If you are running Windows XP/2000/2003 and want to be able to play in Direct3D-mode you need to remove a tick from "Display properties>Effects>Use transition effects for menus and tooltips", otherwise WB may crash when you change the plane/load.
At start I receive "Invalid wsock32.dll. Please reinstall FreeHost Launcher"
This Message is generated, if you use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) from PGP.com in the version 8.x or above. This Program is not compatible with FHL. Use version 7.x or GNU Privacy Guard.
(Speaking strictly, this problem may be caused by any program that modifies and protects modified wsock32.dll. PGP v8 is a popular one of these.)
I receive Error 6 when trying to connect to arena
When using Windows XP SP1 FHLauncher shows Error 6, when you connect to arena. In order to counter this you should tick Win98 compatibility in the shortcut.
My FH Launcher freezes when I double-click the arena to join
Only if you mean at least 60 seconds under term "freezing". Or else it may be just long connecting.
This trouble is caused by double run of FHL/WB. On Win NT (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003), press Ctrl-Shift-Escape, switch to Processes page and kill processes FHLauncher.exe, WBHelper.exe, warbirds.exe, wbd3d.exe if any of these found. For this you must right-click your mouse on the process and select "End process". Don't try to kill other processes unless you are sure what are you doing. After ensuring that none of named processes running, you can start FHL again. I hope.
On Win 95/98 you can have problems finding list of current processes and killing them. You may use some freeware, such as PVIEW95.EXE for killing processes.
How do I start FH's WB in Direct3D mode?
Start FHLauncher.exe, and as soon as the menu pops up, click on "options". When the new window comes, select "Direct3D" in the "Warbirds Video Mode" box on the lower left corner. You are set. But don't press Cancel after that ;-)
Connection to server
I can't create an account, because password is considered wrong
Probably you occasioned to make the very same login, as previous player. Very probably you cannot guess password of previous player. Choose another login name.
I can't login with my old nick because my password is considered wrong
First, check Caps-lock state and verify wether letters are really capital or small, numbers are not punctuation signs and the language of keyboard is set to english.
Second, it looks like you forgot your password, despite you really believe you remember it. At the moment the only method is to forget old account and create a new one.
I login to my existing account, but the game asks for in-game nick
Looks like you confused your login and typed-in another one, not existing before. Ensure that you type your login correctly.
I lost my login and password (due to reinstalling or any other cause)
Unlucky. Today there is no way to restore it. Create a new one, with new in-game nick. Next time hold your logins and passwords in safe place.
When I try to log on I receive this message: "Cannot resolve IP Address of arena"
If you are having this problem, you must:
1. Either copy this file into your hosts folder (Right-click this link, select "save target as.." and remove the ".htm" extension). Your hosts folder is:
| Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT | C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts |
| Windows 95, Windows 98, Window Me | C:\Windows\Hosts |
| Mac OS | /etc/hosts |
Ensure that file "hosts" contains two lines: 83.149.244.5 wb.chph.ras.ru 64.251.22.174 fw190.tabajarahost.com
After I see the Tower, I'm back on my Desktop
If you are banned by the Arena-Admins, you should report your problem by email or at the Forum or ask for help by using WB-Chat.
2. Or edit your hosts file with Notepad if you already have it (It must be "hosts" without any extension in the above folder. It cannot be "hosts.txt", for example.)
Add the following lines into the text file:
83.149.244.5 wb.chph.ras.ru 62.75.138.245 tabahost.homelinux.org 189.6.249.51 arnalist.warbirdsiii.com
Save the file. If the problem persists, it may be:
a)connection from you to arena (or arena's proxy) is down. Try connecting to other address.
b)connection within FreeHost is down. Wait UF to fix it (or Franz in case of TabaHost).
c)hosting server is down. Wait UF to fix it (or Franz in case of non-Moscow TabaHost). Anyways, to be aware of character of the problem, check forum for updates.
In-game take-off
Keyboard does not work with Vista
Go to dispay "personalization", then "easy of access" (is that for handicapped?). At "make computer easy to see" check the options turn off all unnecessery animations and turn off background images. Forum-Posting.
When I try to fly online I receive a message telling me my warbirds.exe/wb3d.exe doesn't correspond to the server's
This is means you have the wrong version of WB. iEN has released 3 builds of v2.77. FH uses build 3 (2.77.0.3). This means you have to download WB from FH servers. You can find it at the FH Site.
Another problem is infected warbirds.exe/wb3d.exe. You should cure your computer with antivirus, and then reinstall WB (because cured-after-intection-warbirds is not the same as original-warbirds).
When I try to fly online I receive a message telling me my misc.bin doesn't correspond to the server's
This is means you have the wrong version of FreeHost Launcher. Download and install modern FHL.
Some of my cockpits have pink windows. How can I correct this?
Try some fixed cockpits from Download#Cockpits.
Playing problems
I receive this message when hitting a con/commando: "You are not present in victim's DB"
Suddenly FH started having troubles with invisible human acks and aircraft. To counter that, FH developers added some script to avoid killing when both are not visible to each other, making the hits not count. This is the technical explanation given by exec:
I don't know what happened with the server, but some invisibles appeared. Every player is represented on the server by a, let's say, "shadow". Let's call them MyShadow and HostileShadow (and FriendlyShadow, as well, but it's out of our interest). Player A has ShadowA and player B has ShadowB on the server, respectively. When we suppose to be player A, we choose, as mentioned above, MyShadow and HostileShadow.
Every shadow has a list of nearby shadows which is named "DB", standing for database. DB is capable of storing 31 other shadows (+1 for the player's own shadow).
It could happen that MyShadow does not contain HostileShadow reference, but HostileShadow has MyShadow reference, or vice versa. It means that one shadow is not aware of other's presence. Therefore an invisible player can attack another that cannot see him.
To avoid it, a temporary (or constant) decision was taken by Aike. The server now tries to check whether both of shadows know about each other. If not, the attack is discarded with the message "You are not present in victim's DB". However, it seems that this logic is not quite debugged yet, since in some cases both players see each other but one or both cannot attack.
This also happens with commandos.
My radar stops working sometimes when I'm in the tower
There are rumors that say there is a network protocol bug or a gameplay error. When any radar is destroyed the entire picture can vanish. You may jump into a human ack and out to refresh it.
My new squad is disbanded after the new ToD started
The number of registered squads is limited and full. If you can tell us, which squad is no longer needed, your new squad may get the slot, after aike find the time to do so. Otherwise he might find squads, that are inactive for a very long time. Please create your squad quickly after every new start of a ToD and mail the exact name of your squad to arena-admins@von-oertzen.org.
