Mutli-player problems/questions.

First some background info:

My friend has just bought rF2, so we thought we'd try some multi-player. We both have clean installs of rF2 with all the offical ISI cars/tracks.

After a bit of Googling, I set up my router to forward the follwing ports to my PC:

34297-34497 tcp/udp
44297-44497 tcp/udp
54297-54497 tcp/udp
443 tcp/udp​

Is that right, and all I need?

I then started a server using the Host button on the launcher, loaded up "Racing School v1.0", and both my friend and I were able to see the server in the browser, join in, and have a race. So far, so good.

However, when I restarted the server and chose instead "1960s World Class Racing v.146", nether he nor I could see the server in the server browser. If I change back to "Racing School v1.0" the server appears.

So now, my questions:

1. Why is the server not visible if it's running the 1960s mod ?
   
2. How can I run "all cars and tracks"? (anything other than Racing School would be nice!) I found this post about it, but if I download the all cars and tracks vmod it links to, I am unable to install it (it complains about lots of things missing). It shouldn't be so hard to run a server and select the cars and tracks I want available!
   
3. When we've both joined the server, there always seems to be a "Transparent Trainer" present - how do I get rid of that? Neither I nor my friend have Transparent Trainer enabled under options, and I couldn't see any setting for it in the dedicated server.
   
4. In the monitor, what's the click-able square to the left of the chat box?
   
5. In the server browser, what's the function of the "local connection" box at the bottom left? Do I need to select it if the server's also being run on my PC?
   
6. Is there anyway to "favourite" or "bookmark" a server in the browser, so it can be found quickly next time?
   

And what appear to be bugs:

1. When selecting the Login button from the launcher, there's a "Remember" checkbox, but that doesn't work - each time I login I have to enter email address and password.
   
2. In the server browser, the Filters button doesn't seem to work (either that or it's so unintuitive I'm doing something wrong without realising). For example, I click "Filters", choose "Server name", "equals", "my server name", then click the back button; the Filters button has an orange mark on it indicating filters are active, the server list refreshes, but I still see the same old servers in the list.

 

..

 

1. (1960's mod) - you're right, the server does say the mod ID is invalid - I hadn't spotted that before (some sort of red highlight or pop-up alert box to make sure I noticed (and, more importantly, under stood the significance of) the error would have been nice, especially as it effectively makes the running server useless). How do I fix it? Or is it a problem with the distributed mod? And if so, is there a fixed version available?

2. (all cars & track) - I found a video tutorial for creating a mod, but it's quite old so I don't know how much is still valid - is there an up-to-date tutorial somewhere so I can be sure I'm doing the right thing? (and once again I wish to express my surprise/astonishment/frustration that this is even necessary in order for someone to, for example, run a trainer car around Silverstone with a friend).

3. (transparent trainer) - I was pretty sure I had turned of the TT, but I'll double check, thanks. The interesting thing about the TT was that I saw it as my friend's blue car, and he saw it as my white car. And it wasn't transparent. I'm guessing it's affected by the settings on the machine that's playing host? And presumably I'd need to ensure TT was off, then restart the dedicated server?

4 (chat box button) - Ah! That makes sense, thanks. Would be helpful if there was a label or tooltip or something like that, though.

bugs:

1. (remember button) - I didn't know there was an updated launcher available - I'm running whatever comes with the "lite" download (v0.665, apparently), which I downloaded only a couple of days ago. You'd have thought that would have been up-to-date. Or that the update option in the launcher would update it... I just downloaded the one you linked to, and that does, indeed fix the problem (Yay!), but it still says it's v0.665 which, speaking as a software engineer, seems rather bizarre. I'd have thought they'd have bumped the version number when fixing a bug.

2. (filters) - At least you've confirmed I'm not going (too) mad! I don't really need the filtering, but it just seemed bizarre that it didn't seem to work.

I love the sim aspect of rF2, but the UI etc that surrounds it does make me rather frustrated at times - I've seem to keep coming across things that are either un-intuitive, not obvious (e.g. switching the car/track pickers into list mode - someone had to point that out to me after I complained about trying to find a card in the "card" view), or just don't work (login/filters!).

Thank you for your help! It's very much appreciated.