Cisco/Linksys E4200 woes

[Emrak]

So I've been using FG2 and loving it. Life was good. But lo, there is trouble in paradise! My old router died. :-/ But that just gave me an excuse to buy a wizbang new fancy one! :D. ....which means FG2 doesn't work no mo.

What I've done:
1) Left my PC alone, it worked before (did double-check that firewall was open and that IP was still static).
2) Turned off firewall on router.
3) Enabled port forwarding for 1802-1803 range.
4) Whined and gnashed my teeth.

Additional weirdness:
1) Players try to connect and it shows up on my FG2 chat box "XYZ is connected" but then shows "connection lost" some moments later (the players never see the loading progress bar on their end).
2) When I use the test connection utility in FG2 it says "success" in green.
3) When I use the port checker at canyouseeme.org it can't connect to 1802 (time out).

Does anyone have any experience with the E4200? Or tips at all?

Signed,
Frustrated In Florida

[Trenloe]

3) When I use the port checker at canyouseeme.org it can't connect to 1802 (time out).

When you run this port check are you hosting a game in Fantasy Grounds (fully running as a GM) - not just sitting on the same screen as the connection test?

[Emrak]

When you run this port check are you hosting a game in Fantasy Grounds (fully running as a GM) - not just sitting on the same screen as the connection test?

Good call. Nope, I wasn't running FG I guess. Did what you said above and canyouseeme.org reports success! I.E., port is open.

Players still can't access. Just had them try again.

EDIT:
Turns out it was just ONE player with the issue. I had another player try and success was had. Will work through the first player's issue tomorrow. Guess something changed on his end, not mine.

[Trenloe]

Turns out it was just ONE player with the issue. I had another player try and success was had. Will work through the first player's issue tomorrow. Guess something changed on his end, not mine.

Good to know it doesn't look like you're new router is causing problems. Frustrating your player is having issues though...

[Trenloe]

What I've done:

2) Turned off firewall on router.



Oh yeah, you may want to turn that firewall on your router back on - it's really not a good idea running without a firewall on your internet connection! The port forwarding should work with the firewall on (fingers crossed)...

[joshuha]

I recently had a problem with a player not being able to join my Borderlands game (and he was the only one). Normally its just a hosts port that has to be open so I would look to make sure he doesn't have a software firewall blocking FantasyGrounds or has some weird setup like my friend did and has outbound NAT translating going on (pfsense).

[Emrak]

The player still can't connect, unfortunately. Everyone else in our group can, however. As an added strangeness, he can connect just fine with a different GM's fantasy ground instance.

The only difference between the GM he can connect to and the GM he CAN'T connect to (me) is this:
Other GM: using windows xp and JPG_d20
Me: using windows 7 and 3.5E

I guess I should try to load the JPG_d20 module and try to get the player to connect as an experiment...?

Incidentally, the player posted a comment in this forum ("oh god please help"). :)

[Trenloe]

Incidentally, the player posted a comment in this forum ("oh god please help"). :)

Can you confirm the external IP address that Fantasy Grounds reports when you are selecting a campaign to load?

Your player posted an ip address ending in .0 which doesn't sound right.

[Emrak]

Can you confirm the external IP address that Fantasy Grounds reports when you are selecting a campaign to load?

Your player posted an ip address ending in .0 which doesn't sound right.

It may be an unusual IP, but it's correct. At the very least, were it incorrect the other 3 players would not be able to login properly (and they can).

[Trenloe]

At the very least, were it incorrect the other 3 players would not be able to login properly (and they can).

I realised that - I just wanted you to confirm in case juggaloninja had it wrong. :)

Is juggaloninja still connecting but then getting connection lost? Or are they just not connecting at all?

I'd be very surprised if the issues was caused by the ruleset you're using. Perhaps there is something slightly different with the router set up for the GM that works. There has been posts elsewhere about people sometimes having issues with QoS enabled on the router causing problems fo some people - might be worth a look, especially if juggaloninja is connecting but then disconnecting (QoS could cause this).

[Emrak]

From his end, he's not connecting. He gets the "check network settings" error. From my end (via the chat window) I see he's connecting then losing connection.

I checked my router. Qos is disabled but wmm support is enabled... Don't see how that would be blocking him specifically, but I can disable it too if need be.

[Trenloe]

From his end, he's not connecting. He gets the "check network settings" error. From my end (via the chat window) I see he's connecting then losing connection.

OK, that's what I wanted to confirm. You seeing the connection means he's reaching you on port 1802. Its the transfer of the campaign data files that is causing the issue.


I checked my router. Qos is disabled but wmm support is enabled... Don't see how that would be blocking him specifically, but I can disable it too if need be.

WMM is just for prioritising wireless traffic locally - are you running on a wireless or wired connection? It shouldn't really make much difference unless you're completely overloading your wireless network.

As the problems appears to be transferring the campaign data files, try the following - get juggaloninja to completely delete the whole folder relating to your campaign from the "cache" directory under the Fantasy Grounds application data folder. This will allow a whole new campaign data set to be loaded - this is in case there is a problem with the existing data stopping juggaloninja downloading any new data.

[Emrak]

Thanks for the help Trenloe! Having some issues finding the right folder. If my campaign was called "XYZ", where would he locate that directory on his PC? We can get to the FG directory fine, just not sure which folder to delete.

[Trenloe]

Thanks for the help Trenloe! Having some issues finding the right folder. If my campaign was called "XYZ", where would he locate that directory on his PC? We can get to the FG directory fine, just not sure which folder to delete.

On the Player's PC go to Windows "Start" -> All Programs -> Fantasy Grounds II -> Application data folder. This will open Windows explorer. Open "cache" and you should see a folder called "XYZ" - delete this folder.

[Emrak]

His cache folder was blank. We did delete all the folders in his "campaign" directory though. :-/

Still no go.

EDIT:
Additionally, we got out of the 3.5E campaign and I created a new campaign using the old (unconverted) D20_JPG ruleset. Once again, 3 of the players were able to join, and the 1 was getting the connect/disconnect issue.

The 1 player has no issues connecting to the prior GM's instance of FG however...

[Trenloe]

His cache folder was blank. We did delete all the folders in his "campaign" directory though. :-/

Still no go.

EDIT:
Additionally, we got out of the 3.5E campaign and I created a new campaign using the old (unconverted) D20_JPG ruleset. Once again, 3 of the players were able to join, and the 1 was getting the connect/disconnect issue.

The 1 player has no issues connecting to the prior GM's instance of FG however...

What versions of FG are you running?

If there's not a version mismatch and you have tried the prior GM's instance recently (in the last day or so), then it is pointing towards something to do with his-to-your network connection.

The fact that the cache folder was blank means that even though you are seeing him "connect" there is no data passing back to him. This could be related to NAT on his end (but I would expect that to fail for connection to the prior GM too) or some weird combination of setup on his router and yours. Do you still have the .0 IP address? Is this is a static IP address assigned by your ISP? Is it possible to get a new internet address other than ending in .0? I'm wondering if there is some weird routing in your players router or ISP that is handling .0 IP addresses differently...

[Emrak]

As far as I know, we have the same versions (2.81). I will double-check with him again. Regarding connection debugging, is there any way to run FG in debug mode to try and isolate exactly when/where the breakdown is occurring?

[Trenloe]

As far as I know, we have the same versions (2.81). I will double-check with him again. Regarding connection debugging, is there any way to run FG in debug mode to try and isolate exactly when/where the breakdown is occurring?

Start Fantasy Grounds with the -n switch will enable network debugging. Modify your shortcut that starts FG to have -n (with a space before it) at the end.

Run this modified shortcut as the GM and host a campaign. When you are in FG, type /console in the chat window and the console will appear. Get just the player who has a problem try to connect and see what information appears in the console. If you are working OK, you will get a lot of "techie" info. But, I'm guessing you won't see much. The first few lines I see are:

Network Notice: Recv - CONNQ
Network Notice: 'Player' connected
Network Notice: Send - NULLR
Network Notice: Recv - CNDBQ
Network Notice: Send - CNDBR
Network Notice: Send - CNDBR

Then lots of Send - CNBR. I reckon you may only see the first 3 lines.

[Emrak]

Good news! I uninstalled FG2, deleted all the remaining folders, reinstalled, updated, and had the user connect again.

No issues!

Having said that, I did do 1 thing differently...I did NOT select the "dungeon" extension for 3.5E this time around. Dunno if that had anything to do with it. Additionally, the user was also able to roll (and see) his dice rolls!

Huzzah

[Trenloe]

Good news! I uninstalled FG2, deleted all the remaining folders, reinstalled, updated, and had the user connect again.

No issues!

Having said that, I did do 1 thing differently...I did NOT select the "dungeon" extension for 3.5E this time around. Dunno if that had anything to do with it. Additionally, the user was also able to roll (and see) his dice rolls!

Huzzah

Hurray! Great news. :D

I doubt the dungeon extension would have made much difference - but who knows! Out of interest, are you now running a new campaign or did you copy the old one? Just wondering if something may have been in your old campaign. Anyway, doesn't really matter now (unless it happens again).

[Emrak]

Ok...come to find out HE did something differently...HE as well just bought a new router last week...this time around, he bypassed the router and plugged straight into his modem. Sigh. So at least I think we've identified the real choke point...his router.

Thoughts on what kind of setting on his router might be causing this?

[Trenloe]

Ok...come to find out HE did something differently...HE as well just bought a new router last week...this time around, he bypassed the router and plugged straight into his modem. Sigh. So at least I think we've identified the real choke point...his router.

Hhhmmm, that's frustrating... Are we going to support him some more after not mentioning that earlier?? ;)


Thoughts on what kind of setting on his router might be causing this?

Probably worth running the -n option on FG your end to see how far it gets. But, I'm guessing some kind of NAT setting on the router.

[Emrak]

Hhhmmm, that's frustrating... Are we going to support him some more after not mentioning that earlier?? ;)

The official party line from me is "GRRRRR. You have a work-around, you're on your own now!"

Having said that...


Probably worth running the -n option on FG your end to see how far it gets. But, I'm guessing some kind of NAT setting on the router.

...being in IT that I am, I kind of have optimization disease and will try to do that in the future to get him straight. lol

Thanks very much for all the help Trenloe!