[SOLVED] Hosting a Game Requires Connetion to FG Central Server

[Ruien]

Hello,

I run a GURPS game every other Saturday with a set of consistent and dedicated players. This campaign has been running for years.

Today, I went to host my game as any other time, but FG refused to start the campaign; it simply sat on the "Load Campaign" page indefinitely and the "Start" button did nothing. The "Connection Test" button always shows Failure, although I can access the open port 1802 from a remote server (the port is opened temporarily when clicking "Run Test", and telnet can be used to check that it's accepting TCP connections).

The problem is that there was a network issue somewhere between myself and the FG Central Server. Other players were able to ping/connect to my machine directly, but since I couldn't actually load the Campaign, we couldn't play. This is a fairly serious problem since it's a committment for everyone to convene at an appointed time. For me to be unable to actually run the server as a result of this is simply inexcusable.

Please explain why my FG copy, which is registered with a Full license, needs to talk to some central FG server in order to host a game. What if that central server is down, or if there is a network issue between myself and that server?

Regards
Ruien

[Mask_of_winter]

Did you try to double click on the campaign name instead of clicking the start button?

[Ruien]

Yes - it's not a client side problem. I inspected the network traffic with tcpdump. When FG can communicate with the central server, the game loads, and when it can't, it refuses to start. I also confirmed this behavior by running FG through SOCKS5 encapsulation and then you can host the campaign (although, then clients can't connect, because the src IP is not the dest IP).

The point is that I've pretty much proved that the FG client is requiring a direct connection to some central server before allowing me to host my game, which adds an unnecessary layer of instability, and I'm unhappy about that non-advertised design decision. I think it deserves a good explanation and workaround.

[Mask_of_winter]

I can start a campaign with no internet. Odd. And I have an Ultimate license.

[Ruien]

That's an interesting observation, and you're right. If I disconnect my network connection, I can load the campaign. I'll need to test to see if that's a valid work-around (that is, if I then re-activate my Internet connection while the server is running, can clients connect successfully?).

If I try to start the campaign with the network connected, and I can't communicate with the FG central server, that's the only time it refuses to start. FG probably detects whether my network is actually connected or not before doing the validation check against the central server.

A true test of what I'm describing would not be to disconnect from the Internet, but rather to watch the network connection and block communication to the FG Central Server (say, using a DNS override in /etc/hosts). That way, your network and internet are connected, but FG sees the path to the central server down -- and then see if "Start" works for you.

[Mask_of_winter]

Due to recent attacks on the server originating from Asia, Doug has set some new security measures. You might have been victim to the extra security. I suggest you contact Smiteworks through the contact us link, explain the situation and give him your ip address. I heard of your problem before with other users living in Japan and China and it was fixed.

[damned]

I think the ALIAS is what might be stopping your session.
If you turn ALIAS OFF then it will still load up without the FG Server but players may have to use your External IP rather than the alias to connect.
Sometime the Alias will still work for players (requires that the GMs eternal Ip is the same as last time and that the player has connected before I think).

[ddavison]

The alias is the problem. With the alias feature enabled, your copy of FG tries to contact our server to "register the alias" to your IP address. When your players connect to the alias, it similarly looks up the alias on our server and then gives them the IP address which is hidden from the user but used to make the connection between you and your players. When our server has been getting hit lately, the entire server isn't "down", it is just inundated with a very large number of requests that are queued up ahead of your very simple request. Our server is unable to answer your simple request and so FG just hangs waiting for a response. If you turn off the alias feature and hand out your IP address to your players, they can connect directly to you.

John and I started talking about some other possible solutions just today for this.

[Ruien]

@damned @ddavison:

Ah, that's the problem!

I never even realized that the "Enable Alias" button was actually an on/off checkbox (it looks like a radio select button). Yes, turn it off, and FG loads. Fantastic!

Not having an alias is no problem. I already have a domain name pointed at my external IP, and FG supports domain name resolution.

You guys rock -- thanks!


Edit: How do I edit the thread title to mark this [SOLVED]?