I'm port forwarded, but no one can connect

[Mortikar]

Hello there.

I ran my first FG game a few weeks ago and today was going to run another for my friends. So I started my campaign and tried to test the log in from my laptop.

On my host computer, When I test the connection, it says "Success" This means that I'm correctly port forwarded, right?

But on my laptop, It says "cannot connect to the host. Check the IP and try again". I've tried the alias, the external IP and neither worked. The Internal IP does work, but that doesn't help my friends. I also had a friend test the connection on both the External and alias, and neither worked for him.

The only network related thing I've changed since then was trying to set up a minecraft server with my buddy. I uninstalled Hamachi and canceled the rules for minecraft on my firewall.

I thought maybe someone may have an insight as to why someone cannot connect to a host, even though the host's computer tests with a "success" in FG. Thank you for any help you can give.

[Trenloe]

On my host computer, When I test the connection, it says "Success" This means that I'm correctly port forwarded, right?
That is usually the case. Also try going to canyouseeme.org and entering port 1802 in "What Port?" and pressing the "Check Your Port" button. Do this while FG is running as a GM and waiting for player connections.


But on my laptop, It says "cannot connect to the host. Check the IP and try again". I've tried the alias, the external IP and neither worked. The Internal IP does work, but that doesn't help my friends. I also had a friend test the connection on both the External and alias, and neither worked for him.
FYI - if you are connecting on your own network then you will need to use the internal address. As you say, this does not help people externally, but this is what you do for connections on your own (internal) network. At least this proves that FG is running OK and accepting connections.


The only network related thing I've changed since then was trying to set up a minecraft server with my buddy. I uninstalled Hamachi and canceled the rules for minecraft on my firewall.
Have you fully uninstalled Hamachi? Is there a setting for this still hanging around? Check that the internal IP address reported by Fantasy Grounds is something like 192.168.XX.YY and that it is this IP address that is being used in your port forwarding on your router.

[Mortikar]

Thank you for responding so quickly.

I got a success on canyouseeme.org on port 1802 while running the campaign as a GM.

I have fully uinstalled Hamachi and deleted all user files and then did a system reset, still not working yet.

[Trenloe]

Then I'm really not sure what the issue is.

Make sure that your friend who is testing has the external IP address correct when trying to connect (canyouseeme.org should have reported this too). If they are using the alias, make sure that they have entered it correctly - if they are using copy/paste there may be a rogue space at the beginning/end of the alias list. If that fails, try generating a new alias and trying that.

[Mortikar]

Do you happen to know if there is a way to use a domain you own to host the game per chance?

[Trenloe]

Do you happen to know if there is a way to use a domain you own to host the game per chance?
Not sure what you mean by this?

Do you mean create a servername like myfantasygrounds.fgdomain.com that points to your external IP address by using an internet Domain Name Service (DNS) entry?

Or are you thinking of running Fantasy Grounds in the "cloud" somewhere? If this is the case, you would need to have a Windows server (probably a workstation image running Windows 7 or 8) somewhere that would be running Fantasy Grounds and the GM could remote desktop into that server to get their desktop view and the players would connect to the IP address of this server in the cloud. Is this what you are thinking?

[Mortikar]

Do you mean create a servername like myfantasygrounds.fgdomain.com that points to your external IP address by using an internet Domain Name Service (DNS) entry?


I think I was thinking of this. Just if there was the possibility as a last resort. But I have gotten FG to work like normal before on this computer so I haven't quite given up yet.

[Trenloe]

I don't see how that would make much of a difference as that domain name would just resolve and be converted to your IP address anyway.

[Mortikar]

This is solved, but just in case someone finds this later, I did a system restore to before I installed Hamachi, and then had another friend try to connect. He successfully connected. It may have also been a typo on my other friend's side this whole time. Anyway, it's up and running again and it looks like it was definitely not a FG program issue.

[damned]

Do you happen to know if there is a way to use a domain you own to host the game per chance?

yes - but FG wont do this for you - you need to have access to your domains DNS and create an A record pointing to your public ip address...

[Dracones]

Do you happen to know if there is a way to use a domain you own to host the game per chance?

For most people there isn't much of a reason to do this since you can just use FG's alias system to point people to your public IP anyway. However.... I do this. I'm behind several firewalls that I don't own so it's impossible for me to port forward back into my home PC from my public IP.

So what I do is I have a public server running Linux that I have a VPN connection to. So that public internet server can "see" my home PC over the VPN. I then use RINETD on the internet server to forward port 1802 from the public server to my home PC's VPN IP. This allows people to point FG to my domain and end up actually connecting over my VPN to my home PC, without them needing VPN software.

It's a bit convoluted, but basically Home -> VPN -> Public server that forwards FG's port back down the chain.