Question about connectivity in a local network

[grisix]

I have an Ultimate FG license, a desktop and a laptop.

I use a laptop as needed to run the game and work on my campaign, and a desktop that is on 24/7.

I am thinking of installing FG on these two different computers, each using my account and licence key, and setup my desktop as an off-game server where my players can log in and create their characters, and consult the references I have access to and shared with them (I found out they can even make rolls for their character's attributes even if I am not there, as the chat window keep tracks of those and I can double check them easily -nice!)

Before starting any new FG session, I make sure to do the update to keep both computers updated to the same FG version, and I backup my campaign folder from time to time. There is no firewall issue to connect to either computer, as those have been taken care of.

From my laptop, I update the data settings to point to where the data is stored on my desktop (after sharing this folder across the local network).

When the game is off, my characters only update their character sheet, connecting on the desktop available 24/7 to work on their characters.

When my laptop is on, I open FR to update the story, images, and all the stuff FG allows to prep up upfront (encounters, tables, parcels, ...) without updating any of the character sheets.

Once the game is on, I shut down FG on my desktop (off-game server) to have players connect to my laptop (game server).

Is there is any technical issue that can occur with the data sets or FG in general if I start running this kind of setup?

[Trenloe]

The biggest thing, as you are running the data directory as a shared drive, is to make sure you only ever have one GM instance accessing the same data.

Also, you will need to change your router port forwarding setup (or make sure UPnP on the router works 100%) to point from your desktop to your laptop at game time. An Internet router can only forward port 1802 to one computer at a time.

[Trenloe]

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

[LordEntrails]

The biggest concern I see is if you access FG on your laptop while your desktop is running FG. Since you are looking to share your data folder with a network location, you will now have 2 instances of FG trying to write to the same database files, and you may get corruption. So, make sure you shutdown FG on your desktop before launching it on your laptop.

I would also put a password on all of your campaigns, that way it helps reduce the vulnerability of having FG running and your port open at all times.

Finally, how are you handling the port forwarding? Since you can only forward a specific port to one internal address at a time, you will either have to have UPnP running on your router or reset your port forwarding as you switch between computers.

[grisix]

Thanks for the input!

To clarify, I am giving the players two different address locations, the address for the off-game server (desktop) is different from the address when we play (laptop) and I always stop FG on the off-game server during a game session. And yes, there are two separate passwords, one for the FG campaign itself, and one for the shared drive too.

The only thing players would be updating when connecting to the off-game server is their character sheet, and my goal is to avoid having to go and stop FG every time on my desktop when I need to update any other information for the campaign on my laptop so that they really can work on their character sheet on their own.

[Trenloe]

To clarify, I am giving the players two different address locations, the address for the off-game server (desktop) is different from the address when we play (laptop)

Do these two servers use the same Internet access? If they do, then having two different FG aliases won't help - these will point to the same public IP address of your Internet router and both will try to use port 1802 to access your FG instance. Your Internet router can only forward port 1802 to one computer.

[grisix]

Ah! got it, thanks!