Connection Troubles.

[Faj]

So my friends a I were considering buying Fantasy Grounds, but we have been trying to get our demo's to connect for over a hour now, and have not come up with anything.

Ports were opened, firewalls turned off, static IP's set, IP address's double checked, and still nothing. We can join our own games by opening two Demo's on one computer, but cannot join each other.

My info is

Router type: Dlink DIR 655
Number of routers:1
numbers of computers connected:3
operating system: Windows vista home premium,service pack 1
Software firewalls: Basic Windows Firewall turned off, and Norton protection center turned off.
Service provider: Shaw DSL.

[Foen]

This really isn't an area of expertise of mine (other than to share the pain of setting FG up for the first time, which must add several hours to the start-up time for FG, and several years to the GM's effective age), but it might be worth checking out the Wiki entry at https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/index.php/Networking

Cheers

Foen

[Oberoten]

To actually OPEN a port it is generally not enough to just shut OFF the firewall, you need to set it up to actually open a port.

- Obe

[Griogre]

Yeah, turning off a firewall "locks" port settings in modern firewalls as a security measure. I also don't see anything about port forwarding your router. Also, I see you may have two software firewalls. I have seen the Windows Firewall automatically turn on when a 3rd party firewall is turned off so it's possible you do have a firewall up when you think you don't (not that it matters other than you need to make sure you don't end up with two software firewall on at the same time).

In summary you need to leave up you perfered firewall and configure it to use FG as a server and then make sure the port is open on your router firewall and you tell the router to port forward 1802 to the right local IP address of the computer hosting FG.

[Faj]

This really isn't an area of expertise of mine (other than to share the pain of setting FG up for the first time, which must add several hours to the start-up time for FG, and several years to the GM's effective age), but it might be worth checking out the Wiki entry at https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/index.php/Networking

Cheers

Foen

I have done all that already with no success, thanks though.



To actually OPEN a port it is generally not enough to just shut OFF the firewall, you need to set it up to actually open a port.

- Obe

I have opened and forwarded my ports, and then turned off my firewalls to see if it did anything, as it would not let us connect even with the firewalls on.


Yeah, turning off a firewall "locks" port settings in modern firewalls as a security measure. I also don't see anything about port forwarding your router. Also, I see you may have two software firewalls. I have seen the Windows Firewall automatically turn on when a 3rd party firewall is turned off so it's possible you do have a firewall up when you think you don't (not that it matters other than you need to make sure you don't end up with two software firewall on at the same time).

In summary you need to leave up you perfered firewall and configure it to use FG as a server and then make sure the port is open on your router firewall and you tell the router to port forward 1802 to the right local IP address of the computer hosting FG.

As stated, it doesn't work with the firewalls on or off, and the ports have been forwarded. Also, my Windows firewall is always off, even when my Norton gets turned off. I have gone in, opened and forwarded port 1802, and used the IP address that the game tells me to use, and still nothing.

[Griogre]

I'm dead serious on checking the secuity center to make sure you don't have two firewalls on. It's happened to serveral people if you been cutting on or off firewalls.

First I know it's annoying but almost everyone who works at it gets this to work. Next try starting the demo. Go to PC Flank (https://www.pcflank.com/). On the left side pane under Test Your System click Advanced Port Scanner. Keep clicking the buttons. Accepting the Defaults until you get to Advanced Port Scanner Settings. Then select "Scan desired ports and/or the range of ports." Type in 1802 and let it scan the port while the demo is running. Let us know what it says.

[Zeus]

I would also suggest checking to ensure UPnP is not enabled on your router if you are manually port forwarding port 1802. Having both set/enabled on at the same time will likely confuse the router.

[zabulus]

I have gone in, opened and forwarded port 1802, and used the IP address that the game tells me to use, and still nothing.

Hello Faj, just to make sure: Do you mean here that you have forwarded your port to the IP-address fantasy grounds tells you is our "local IP-address"? If that is the case, that is good.

What is not good is if your friend tries to use this same address to connect (unless he is on your local network). He has to use your external IP-address, which you can find on www.whatsmyip.org

[Faj]

So after a bit more messing around, I have come to the conclusion that it is my firewall that is blocking him from joining. Now the problem is finding out how to enable him to join. My Norton is detecting him as a attacking intruder, and does not even give me the option of allowing him in. I even put both his IP and External IP as trusted, but nothing. If I turn off Intrusion prevention, he just auto-fails when connecting rather than it trying to connect for awhile. And Griogre, both mine and my friends port says they are "Stealthed"

[Griogre]

Yeah stealth usually means a firewall is blocking. It doesn't matter about your friend, because once the host is open he can connect. Loosely speaking steath means the port is "half open" ie it reponds but doesn't allow a connection. This is fine for clients/players.

My Norton firewall has a couple of settings probably similar to yours. First there is a anti intrustion setting. This wears off after a while, usually 20 - 30 minutes but you can add your friend's computer so it does't set it off. This problem isn't really important - it just means you need to configure the firewall elsewhere to allow you to run the Demo server and allow connections. The only important setting is you want Notify on so you can see if it thinks the connection attempt is an intrusion.

The real problem is your firewall seems to be running in "Silent or Autmatatic Mode" where it automatically deals with problems. You need to cut that off so you can respond to an alert and tell the firewall it's OK to accept connections. After you cut auto or silent mode off, you need to start the demo and make sure you stay in Windowed mode so you can see any alerts and make sure they don't end up underneath the FG demo or any other windows so you can't see them.

Once you allow the demo to act as a server you can set the firewall back in auto or silent mode. The full version of FG works just like the demo and you will go through the same steps to allow it to opperate as a server so once you get the demo to work you are going to be golden if you get the full version - its always eaiser the second time around. :p

[NeoShain]

I have McAfee and on the PC Flank thing it says my ports are stealthed too, I also have a Linksys router, I cannot figure out how to open my ports to let my players play, can you you help me?

[grapper]

I'm having trouble getting set up to host a game too.

I opened port 1802 TCP on my firewall, but when I go to PCFlank, port 1802 comes back as "closed"

If I close it in the firewall it goes back to "stealthed" so I assume I have the firewall part of it correct, but I'm stumped on how to get it "open"

[joshuha]

And when you are doing the PCFlank test FG is up and running in a session?

[Griogre]

Don't forget most home computers have at least two firewalls. One on the PC and one in the box that makes the conection to the internet. Cutting off the firewall on the PC only means you can't open the port. You have to cut it on and allow FG on that firewall too.

[grapper]

I have a little bit complicated setup

ISP -- Cable Modem -- (NIC #1) PC 1 (NIC #2) -- Switch HUB -- PC 2

I'm running FG on PC2

The cable modem doesn't have a firewall that I can find (I logged into it using the browser interface) 3Com Model 3CR29220

PC1 running windows xp
Firewall on PC1 (windows firewall) has an exception for port 1802 TCP
ICS on PC1 has Service setting for port 1802 TCP (external 1802 to internal 1802)

The hub is a basic switch (no firewall that I see) Netgear Model FS105

PC2 running windows vista
Firewall on PC2 (windows firewall) has an exception for port 1802 TCP


The PCFlank test shows port 1802 closed even when FG is running a host session

[joshuha]

The ICS on PC1 has to be also setup to forward the port to its client PC2. I am not familiar with using Windows ICS though but I assume it uses DHCP to assign IPs to its clients. Somewhere in there or a file I assume you should also be able to set it to forward the incoming 1802 port to PC1 to the internal IP it assigns PC2 over DHCP.

[grapper]

AHA, I got it!

I had this part wrong:

ICS on PC1 has Service setting for port 1802 TCP (external 1802 to internal 1802)


This is the port forwarding and I had it pointing at the wrong machine. Once I set it to PC2 everything started working fine. Whew!

[Griogre]

Glad you got it working. :) I've always found that the most frustration comes when you think you got something setup right, but it really isn't. :p

[Dershem]

I have the problem that after getting everythign set up mine works.. then connect and good to go. The next time I try it.. I can not get people to connect. I'm not sure what the problem is.

I have a Modem --> Wireless Router >> 2 computers both runing FG one as a host the other connecting through the internet. Everytime the second connects to the first it stops 1802 from forwardign to my computer again.

[Dershem]

N/M hamachi ftw.

[Griogre]

You problem may be your router dynamically assigns local IP numbers. In this case you might not be assigned the same local IP number every time you connect to the router. Is is particuallary true if you router is only say allowed to assign 3 or 4 addresses but you have more things that connect to the router than that.

If this happens then port forwarding doesn't work because the router is forwarding 1802 to a different local IP address from the one you are trying to run a server from. You should make the local IP address static.