ACARS is a complex system which consists of several software mod ules which cooperate. Depending on whether you want to simulate an airplane or a dispatch/ATC station, you need another module.
In most cases, you really want to use the normal ACARS server, reachable at the internet. But in some cases it comes in handy to run a mini server yourselves. This is the program you need for it.Take care that nice features such as METAR and TAF retrieval will not work with the mini server, as it does not at all go out onto the internet for data. It also does not support file uploads and downloads (though this can all be added, if need really be).
Project Progress
2020-07-05 A repeat of an older message to get it back on top of the list:
If your ACARS claims "PLEASE UPDATE YOUR ACARS URL SEE WWW.HOPPIE.NL/ACARS", then your old ACARS client software still refers to a network connect URL with 'flightline' in the string. Please replace this by the correct URL:
http://www.hoppie.nl/acars/system/connect.html
Since most of the ACARS client software in use today is not written by me, I will usually not be able to help you with the URL update. Please consult your software supplier for the instructions.
2019-06-23 Today I looked at the counter of active accounts, which shows the number of accounts that have seen activity in the last 90 days. ACARS currently has over 3000 active users! There are over 800 users registered that have never logged on yet, most of these probably never will and these passive accounts will expire automatically after 90 days of passiveness.
see all previous progress messages
Installation
Fetch the install file and run it. It
will create a start icon for you.The program comes up with a single window and needs zero configuration. If you want, you can change the TCP port number via File/Setup, but then you must also include this port number in all your ACARS stations.
Typically, you use "localhost" in your stations to point at the ACARS mini server if it runs on the same machine as the stations. You may use "localhost:5000" if you changed the TCP port to 5000. All normal URL syntax is allowed, such as "http://192.168.0.1:5000" or host names if you have them.
By making the port number empty, the default 80 returns.