Odd - After update to 3.012, cannot connect or be connected to

[ainvarg]

I have been the DM for our group for a few years now with no issues with the guys connecting once the initial network questions were worked out. Tonight, I'm working with the fellow that will be the DM going forward for a while, but I'm unable to connect to his game. He was previously the DM, so we thought his network should be set up correctly and spent quite a while checking that - same hardware as mine, network-wise, configured the same - and found no smoking gun.

So I suggested that he connect to me to verify things since we know that worked two weeks ago, but it no longer works. We both installed updates when we started FG tonight so we are at 3.012 now, but I don't actually know how many other updates we might have gotten today.

Any suggestions?

[ddavison]

I would recommend double checking that your local IP address hasn't changed with your router. This is probably the #1 cause of that sort of thing.

[ainvarg]

I've set a static address on my machine and confirmed that the modem is forwarding 1802 traffic to that local address. I did try the canyouseeme.org test and confirmed that it sees the service on 1802. The other DM has also tested at canyouseeme.org successfully.

We each watched sysinternals' tcpviewer while testing. When I tested connection to him, I see a SYN_SENT and there's a delay, then it declares failure and "check the address". He sees a SYN_RECEIVED during the same period, then it disappears when mine times out. It never appears to reply.

When he tested connection to me, he gets an immediate failure and I never see the connection come through at all.

[Trenloe]

Are you connecting with an alias or with the external IP address? If using the alias, try the external IP address instead.

[ainvarg]

We are both using external IP address.

[ddavison]

We are both using external IP address.



Does FG or anything else show up in a netstat?

Possible two instances of FG are running as host?

Sorry, I'm a bit under the weather or I would volunteer to hop on Google hangouts to help diagnose further. I decided to check email again before I went off to bed. :)

[ainvarg]

Get well soon!

In Task Manager, I only see a single instance of FG, as does my fellow gamer.

With netstat -a, I see that my system is listening on 1802, which canyouseeme.org confirmed, but I don't know that there is anything to show that it's FG that is listening.

[Trenloe]

This might not be very helpful I know, but try rebooting the computer, routers, modems, etc.. Some people have seen this clear up strange connection issues.

[ainvarg]

I actually rebooted for the first time in weeks just before this little episode. We need to sign off, so we will reset equipment and try again later. I guess if you hear any other reports like this, at least we'll know I'm not alone.

[Nylanfs]

Just to chime in here, I ended up having to open the port on my firewall and my router when I first starting using FG.

[ddavison]

It is helpful to check your netstat -a for something listening on port 1802 with FG open. Then close FG and re-check. If something is still listening on that port, then we have a port conflict with another process. If you run your cmd prompt as an Admin, you can run netstat -a -b and it will show the executable that created the process listening there.

[ainvarg]

Just to chime in here, I ended up having to open the port on my firewall and my router when I first starting using FG.

So did I. That was done years ago for both of us, but you can't assume it's still working, so we confirmed that when FG was listening on our respective machines, there was a service available on 1802. When we shut off FG, there was no service on 1802. Short of actually getting a connection, that seems to be the best we can do to verify that ports are open.

The other members of our table were not available last night, so we could not have either of them test, but I'm a bit concerned that next time I host, I will be unable to receive connections from the guys. Last night, we figured we would get some things up and running for the transition to the other GM/new game.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[ainvarg]

It is helpful to check your netstat -a for something listening on port 1802 with FG open. Then close FG and re-check. If something is still listening on that port, then we have a port conflict with another process. If you run your cmd prompt as an Admin, you can run netstat -a -b and it will show the executable that created the process listening there.

We did try that. When FG was open, I saw the following when I ran netstat -a. It was the only thing that referred to port 1802. I'm not a netstat user very often - is this what I need to see?

TCP 0.0.0.0:1802 AinvarG:0 LISTENING

EDIT: With FG off, I do not see anything listening on 1802.

[damned]

if you are still having issues send me a PM.


https://www.fg-con.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/fg-con-6-150-1.jpg (https://www.fg-con.com/events/)
FG Con 6 – April 17-19th 2015 - register at www.fg-con.com (https://www.fg-con.com/) for all the latest info.

[ainvarg]

OK, no time to look at this since last posting, but we found something interesting today. We have a third player available tonight. He is on a different network - different town while the first play and I are in the same town. Player #3 can connect to either Player #2 or to me. I still cannot connect to Player #2.

So we have confirmed that my host works and his host works. We are leaning toward some weirdness on the provider's network. Fortunately, we have a lot of contacts there and should be able to find someone that can help us figure it out.

[damned]

sadly it looks like there may be a routing issue... good luck!


https://www.fg-con.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fg-con-6-150-14.jpg (https://www.fg-con.com/events/)
FG Con 6 – April 17-19th 2015 - register at www.fg-con.com (https://www.fg-con.com/) for all the latest info.

[ainvarg]

Trying to test with different ports, we've noticed that the console log still says "connecting to xx.xx.xx.xx:1802" and if we hard-code the test port (80) into the address, we get "connecting to xx.xx.xx.xx:80:1802"

How should we be trying to use the alternate ports for troubleshooting?

[damned]

whats the commandline you are using?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23134-Doubts&p=199600&viewfull=1#post199600

[ainvarg]

<path to fantasy grounds executable from original shortcut> "-p 80"

I can't tell from the image you referred me to - is there a space between the -p flag and the port number? Our test included a space. And we used quotes around the flag which are apparently not necessary. We can give it another try.

I'm hoping to get one of the network guys from our mutual Internet provided intrigued enough to help us figure out why this seems to only be an issue within the provider's network and not when the client is outside that network. Odd.

[Trenloe]

The text after the image tells you what you want to know: "Add -pXXXXX to the end of the target, where XXXXX is the port number you want to use with FG (there is no space between the -p and the port number). "

[ainvarg]

No one knows - or admits to knowing - why it was necessary, but we each had to put in a static route in our modems in order to force traffic between our modems on the right network. We have confirmed that we can both connect to each other now.

Good thing we know people at the provider's network team...

[damned]

well done!