Yet another thread about connection issues...

[draion]

Hello all,

I'm new to FG. Me and my old tabletop friends are very excited about discovering FG and getting together to play DND again for the first time since life had seperated us. We've fiddled a bit with the demo, seen the potential of the software, drooled over the fun times ahead of us, bought copies of FG, the rule books, and a starting adventure, and are set to go... except, I would have NEVER thought solving a connection problem could give such a headache!

I'll explain the steps I took as simple and fast as I can.

First time I installed FG, my connection test was failing all the time. I googled it. Forwarded the port 1082 through my modems interface. It worked. I was getting a success on the test ever since (for about a month).

...untill the day we were ready to play our first session (today), the test fails again. No new programs installed, no change in my operating system (windows 10), no updates for FG (3.1.7 was working fine yesterday)...

I checked my modem settings again. The rule is still there. I recreated the rule just to be sure.

I also added a rule into windows firewall (I don't use a hardware firewall or any other software) for port 1082.

I tried complletely disabling the firewall.

I installed a port checker software from portforward.com which was suggested on the FG FAQ page. It gives a successful result for port 1082. But when I try canyouseeme.org it fails.

I can connect to a game hosted by someone else, but they can't connect to mine. Which is a problem, because I will be the one hosting the game as DM.

Any suggestions/help would be really appreciated. Thanks...

[Mortar]

You give your players your external IP address or server alias?

[draion]

I tried both.

[Trenloe]

I installed a port checker software from portforward.com which was suggested on the FG FAQ page. It gives a successful result for port 1082. But when I try canyouseeme.org it fails.
When you try canyouseeme.org did you Have FG fully running, hosting a campaign and waiting for players to connect? Port 1802 will only be accessible when FG is running as a GM and waiting for players to connect.

If you want me to try to connect to you, PM me your alias and external IP and have FG running as the GM, hosting a campaign waiting for connections.

[draion]

Yes I was hosting a session when I checked.

[draion]

And as suddenly this problem arised, it's fixed now somehow :) I have done absolutely nothing!

How can one not hate computers sometimes...

Anyway, thanks guys.

[draion]

Hello again...

It's been 6 months since I wrote that the issue is fixed, and I've been using FG without any connection problems since, but now suddenly I have the same issue again. I haven't made a single change on FG, or my modem, or my firewall or anti-virus settings. And I've checked that the port is still forwarded correctly and everything else I mentioned in my first post. The connection test from inside FG fails. Last week it was working, today it isn't. I don't know what else to try...

[draion]

By the way, the 1082's in my original post are typos. On my modem interface it actually says 1802.

[Trenloe]

Reboot your router.

Double (triple?) check that the IP address of the computer that runs FG is what is set in your router (it may have changed).

If you run McAfee check it isn't blocking FG: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33860-yet-another-failed-connection-test-question&p=287631&viewfull=1#post287631

If you're running other Anti-Virus/Security systems check that they haven't started blocking FG. These can suddenly decide the block an application.

Check that your network (in Network and Sharing Center) is being shown as Private/Home, not public.

Reboot your computer if it's been on for over a week! ;)

[Ken L]

If you closed FG recently, sometimes your operating system will hold on to the port for a bit before releasing it from the network stack. Upon opening FG you'll see that it's failing because the old instance of FG is holding on to that port. After some time, pending on how your OS handles port allocation, it releases it so the next time you open FG it should be able to grab the port.

On Linux you can tell by using


lsof -i | grep <port number>

Usually it's wine that hangs on to it for a bit as it emulates windows.

[draion]

Ok, I tried rebooting my router several times.

The IP address which appears on ipconfig, FG, and router interface are all the same.

I'm not running McAfee, but AVG, and FG is on it's exception list. The whole folder in addition to the exe file. I also tried turning off AVG.

My network is being shown as Private.

I reboot my PC almost daily.

I'm not using Linux. My OS is Windows 10 and the installed FG client is the Steam version.

[draion]

I just tried installing the FG demo on my laptop, which is connected to the same modem at home, and again the test fails. So I guess the problem lies somewhere within the router settings. I don't know what changed and how, because I haven't even logged in to the router interface since the last 6 months. This is how the port forwarding page looks like for my modem. Could anyone please tell me how I should configure this exactly, so I know I've done this one correctly at least?

15220

[Nylanfs]

image pending, but go to www.portforward.com and find your modem model.

[LordEntrails]

I just tried installing the FG demo on my laptop, which is connected to the same modem at home, and again the test fails. So I guess the problem lies somewhere within the router settings. I don't know what changed and how, because I haven't even logged in to the router interface since the last 6 months. This is how the port forwarding page looks like for my modem. Could anyone please tell me how I should configure this exactly, so I know I've done this one correctly at least?

15220

It sounds like your router has given your PCa new IP. It happens from time to time :( Unfortunately, I don't know enough to give you specifics on how to forward for your modem. Hopefully one of the gurus will be along shortly to be more helpful.

[draion]

No, I still have the same IP. My laptop has of course a different IP but I DID remember to change the router setting accordingly before testing it.

And portforward.com is where I checked when I originally did my portforward setup when I first installed FG. Unfortunately those guys don't have my model listed, so I had to do some guessing... Thing is, it worked for 6 months. But I just don't know where else to look for a problem now.

[Trenloe]

No, I still have the same IP. My laptop has of course a different IP but I DID remember to change the router setting accordingly before testing it.
Can you expand on what you mean by this as I'm confused. I had thought that by this you meant you'd changed the port forwarding to work for your laptop. But you're also asking how to setup the port forwarding, so it can't be that. Can you give us more info on what you have done in your router please?

[draion]

Trenloe, yes, I went to my router settings, clicked on the portforwarding rule I had created 6 months ago and changed the IP address to match my laptop.

As I said, I must have done it correctly in the first place, since it worked. The problem is, that the portforwarding page for my modem contains more than just "Forward incoming connections to X IP address to Y port". There's TCP, UDP, and then there's TCP and UDP, there's source netmask, portmaps, start, end, then another start... I really don't understand this language well enough to say if something has changed or not. When I first did it, I just wrote my IP address as destination IP address, then created new portmaps for TCP, UDP and TCP,UDP (which are all the available choices) and then filled in everywhere else with 1802's... whithout knowing what I was doing at all.

[Trenloe]

Ah, OK - so you have a modem *and* a router.

From the screenshot of your modem it appears that port 1802 is not being allowed through (assuming you don't have another rule on there for port 1802).

Try this on your modem (from your screenshot):
- Check you don't have any other port forwarding rules for port 1802.
- Create a new rule, or edit the one shown in the screenshot.
- Click "Enabled".
- Leave the "Network" settings all at 0.
- In the "Portmaps" section: Select a protocol of TCP.
- Put 1802 in the "Start" forwarded port. Leave the other two blank.
- Click "apply".

You may need to reboot the modem - the interface may mention this.

Hopefully this will then let port 1802 through into your local network. Then the router should do the port forwarding on 1802 to the specific IP address of the FG computer.

[draion]

Yeah, that was a blank rule I created for the screenshot only.

But I disabled the old rule now and created a new one exactly as you described. When I click apply, it saves the rule, but also gives an error message saying: "Failed to close CRM transaction: EEXIST"

[Trenloe]

But I disabled the old rule now and created a new one exactly as you described. When I click apply, it saves the rule, but also gives an error message saying: "Failed to close CRM transaction: EEXIST"
Maybe there's an issue with the same port being used, even if the other rule is disabled.

Try putting the settings I suggested in the existing rule.

[draion]

Yes, apparently it doesn't allow a second rule with the same port even if disabled. I deleted the old one. This is how it looks like now:

15222

15223

...and still the test fails, after a reboot of both modem and PC.

[Trenloe]

Oh yeah, sorry - I didn't spot the "Dest. IP Address" in the custom port forwarding rule.

As you have a router as well as a modem, this might get slightly complex. Depending on how your system is setup, we may need to forward to the router and then the router forwards to the computer running FG, or we might be able to go straight from the modem to FG.

What is listed under the "LAN Settings" -> "LAN Clients"? If you can see your computer's IP address there use this in the "Dest. IP Address" of the Fantasy Grounds port forwarding you've setup. If you just see a single IP address (probably your router), then forward to this IP address.

[draion]

Ok, actually, I'm not sure if I have both a router and a modem, because I'm not sure I quite know the difference between the two :)

But there's nothing listed under "LAN Clients"

15224

[Trenloe]

What IP address do you use to log into the router (not the modem) - is it different (I imagine it is)? If it is, then use that (the router IP address) as the destination IP address of the port forwarding rule

Out of interest - what do you have under the UPnP entry in that screenshot?

[draion]

Under UPnP there's create new UPnP and existing UPnP. Under existing it says there is none ("no UPnP")

As for your first question, what IP address do I use to log into the router (not the modem)... I don't know. How can I find out?

[Trenloe]

How's your Norwegian? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPUpA3z2hc :D The key thing I get from this, is that you need to press "save settings" at the end - did you do this?


As for your first question, what IP address do I use to log into the router (not the modem)... I don't know. How can I find out?
You've said you'd been logging into the router, and then mentioned the modem in a different line - so I assumed you'd been logging into different places. Is the only place you've been logging in these orange screens you've been showing?

So, let's try to work out your settings. Open a command prompt (press the Windows key + r and type cmd and press return) on your computer and type ipconfig and press return - we're looking for the "Default Gateway" of your main network, it will look something like this:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=15225

Is this IP address the same as the one you use to login to the modem? If so, then your computer connects straight to the modem (and it's operating as a router as well). Although this wouldn't explain as to why there are no LAN clients shown in your screen shot in post #23, so I'm thinking there may be something else in between your computer and the modem. Which leads us to the next option:

If the "Default Gateway" you see from running ipconfig is different from the one you use to login to the modem, then put this IP address in the port forwarding rule. See how we go now...

[draion]

No Norwegian here sorry :) And yes, I do save the new settings :)

The default gateway in ipconfig is the same as the one I use to login to the modem.

[Trenloe]

The default gateway in ipconfig is the same as the one I use to login to the modem.
OK, and the "IPv4 Address" returned by ipconfig is the one you're using as the destination? It's probably 192.168.1.XX (where XX is a number between 2 and 254).

If so, the only thing I can see is that in a few videos (one in Turkish) they've also entered the same port in the End field - even though the interface says it only needs the start field for single ports.

Other than that, I'm beginning to think that the problem might be internal to your network. On the second laptop you install FG on, try to connect to your main FG PC (with FG running a campaign and ready for players to connect). Use the 192.168.1.XX IP address (the "internal" address shown by FG and the ipconfig command - these should be the same).

[damned]

draion if you are online send me a PM

[Trenloe]

draion if you are online send me a PM
tag

[damned]

It looks like he has:

1 router only and it is setup correctly.
Windows Firewall is configured.
No AV blocking.
His router does have a private IP on the public interface so his ISP may have changed how they connect their clients and be aggregating multiple clients on one IP like quite a few Euro countries do.
He is calling ISP in the morning and asking a few questions.

[draion]

Fixed.

After calling my ISP, it turned out to be as damned suspected. My ISP recently changed to a "group/block IP address" system, where they assign IP addresses to groups of 100 people instead of individuals as far as I understood. They told me that this is the international trend among ISPs... Anyway, I bought a static IP address from them and the problem is solved. FG passes the connection test. I feel as if a free service suddenly became paid for me though :(

[damned]

Glad you got it "fixed" - was it expensive to get your own IP address?