New guy, with questions! :D

[Kogi]

Okey, these should be some simple questions to answer, and this is more some answering before i buy into this. I DLed the demo version and played around with it and i can see what the actual program can do and i'm happy with that. But some things i wasn't clear about was the networking. With the demo i could only host local connections and anyone not on my network couldn't connect at all. I'm assuming this is natural for the demo. But i want to know about the real thing. It said that I could host games via ip or alias, i dont know enough about networking and servers to know what an alias server thing is, so a brief explanation would be appreciated, And can you connect over the internet using only ip directed connections, and does my machine turn into a host server for the group? or does the server system work different?

[Griogre]

Hi Kogi and welcome to the boards. From a networking standpoint the demo works exactly like the servers in the full or ultimate versions. The differences is the demo doesn't use alias and can only connect two clients (players).

To have someone connect to the host over the internet you must open port 1802 in all the host's firewalls (most people have a hardware firewall in their router or cable modem and another software firewall on their computer). You then need to tell you router to port forward 1802 to the local IP address of the computer that is running the FG server. Most likely this is why people outside your network could not connect to you. Players do not normally have to do anything to connect to the host, all the work is on the host (GM's) side.

In this case, an alias allows you to use words as a replacement for an external IP address. There are two advanages to an alias, 1) its easier to remember the words. 2) Most people do not have a static external IP address so their external IP address changes from game to game. FG's alias server will connect players to the GM's current external IP address automatically even if it has changed since the last time the group played.

Because you can't use an alias with the demo people have to connect to you directly using the *external* IP address of your router when you start the server.

Any steps you do to allow people to connect to the demo will also need to be done to allow players to connect to a non demo version. I strongly suggest you learn how to set up to host on the demo before you pay for a copy of FG.

If you have any other questions, just ask.

[Kogi]

YAY! Got it working, thanks! I learned all about port forwarding, since im not much of a PC gamer this was quite new to me! I learned! Am i smarter now?

[Arin]

That depends, did you buy FG? ;)

[walrusman999]

ok so i have some questions.
1. is 2.7 out yet or is it still in testing?
2. 4e rules/librarys/modules are they all in 2.7 or do i have to download them?
3. is there anyway to get 2.7 to connect to an older version? my friend has 2.7 and i have 2.6.5 or something.

thanks much
the noob, for now ;)

[Griogre]

1) Version 2.7 is still in beta testing.

2) The same 4E modules that work in 2.6.5 will work in 2.7. There are numerous improvements to the 4E ruleset in the beta. There are no rules/libraries/modules to download for 4E because WotC has forbidden the distribution of their intellectual property. However, if you have a DDI subscription you can use the 4E Parser tool to download data from DDI and make 4E library modules for your own personal use. You can also build the 4E library modules by hand from scratch for you own personal use assuming you have a legal copy of the material.

3) To help test the beta, you first need to download the TestModeManager and run it. You will need to find out from your friend what version he is using and match it. You can get the tool from the download page on this site.

[walrusman999]

cool thank you very much. i saw all the parser things and just wasnt shure what it was about. thank you for clearing that up.