Ultimate License Only Allowing One Player to Connect

[CtrlAltFaceroll]

So, this past weekend I decided to try and get a few of my family members to download the trial and play some 5e. Since I have an ultimate license, I didn't expect much of an issue, bu alas, I never managed to get things going. At first I figured it was just a port issue, but after opening the port, checking it against two different sites (both which said it was open) the in-app connection test being a success as well, I was still unable to get everyone into my game. I also tried disabling my computers firewall, the router's firewall, and as a shot in the dark, enabling DMZ mode. In the end, all I was able to do was get one person into the game. It didn't matter who it was, but if person A was in, person B couldn't join, if person B was in, A couldn't, etc. Since I couldn't find any more directive on the web, I was hoping someone here could help me. Oh, I also ensured we were all running the same version as well as my version number had ULTIMATE displayed.

For information purposes, we were all playing on the same network.
There would have been five of us, including me.
I have Uverse, but we use an Asus router as our connection point.
I forwarded port 1802 on both the Uverse and Asus routers.
Tried using Internal, External, and alias for connecting.
Was running it through Steam on my end, if that matters.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Trenloe]

Firstly, welcome to the FG forums. :-)

Secondly, what exactly was being displayed in FG when people tried to connect? On both the GM side (in the chat window) and on the player side. This will help to identify exactly what the issue is.

As your FG appears to be recognizing its ultimate status (it's displaying v3.1.7 ULTIMATE on the main FG startup screen) and as you are running on the same network then the following need to be noted:
1) Use the internal address when connecting on the same network.
2) You shouldn't have to worry about port forwarding on the same network.
3) If players are using a demo client they need access to the SmiteWorks server over the Internet to verify your ultimate license. If the demo client can't do this it will indicate there is an issue verifying your license.
4) everyone should be on the same version. Run in v3.1.7 live mode, not test or dev.

Hope the above helps.

[damned]

Ayup - check everything that Trenloe suggests above. if you need someone to help you test or troubleshoot further I can assist.

[LordEntrails]

Are they all trying to use the same username? Each connection has to have a unique username. (The host address should/could be the same, but the username field has to be unique).

[Talyn]

Huh. Mine doesn't show ULTIMATE on my version number. I know SW took my money for it! LOL Ok do I email Doug about that?

[Trenloe]

Huh. Mine doesn't show ULTIMATE on my version number. I know SW took my money for it! LOL Ok do I email Doug about that?
Have you entered your Ultimate license key (not any previous licenses you may have had) in the settings window and ran an update?

[Nylanfs]

[email protected]

[Talyn]

Have you entered your Ultimate license key (not any previous licenses you may have had) in the settings window and ran an update?

Just ran a store update in settings and it's still not there. Maybe I was never given my Ultimate license key? I dunno. When I look in the FG Store though, it does say I own it.

[LordEntrails]

You have to actually enter your license key, not just your username and password into the settings.

[Talyn]

FIXED I had never gotten my Ultimate License key so it was still running under the Standard License key I had purchased previously. Just got hold of the new key and it's all good.

[CtrlAltFaceroll]

Thanks for the welcome!

Apologies for taking so long to respond. Busy, busy, busy.
'Could not connect to host. Please check the address and try again.' was the error displayed on the computers attempting to connect second. I get a 'Username' connnected for the first one to connect, but no messages at all for the others that fail to connect. Though when I tested it today to check the exact words, the first that does connect, got stuck. After the 'Connecting . . .' bar, it just sits on a 'Downloading Files...' bar now, even though it says they've connected on my end.
*Quick Note -- This only seems to happen if I'm trying to run a module like Lost Mines or Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

Yep. It says v.3.1.7 ULTIMATE while there's says v.3.1.7 FREE
1) I'm not sure why, but I can't connect using the internal address. I can get the one connected through the external or alias, but not internal. Would the channel matter? I'm on 5ghz channel and they're on the 2.4ghz.
2) Again, not sure why, but I couldn't pass the network test if I didn't portforward at the very least on the Uverse router. Not sure if both Uverse and Asus needed to be forwarded since the Asus was already previously forwarded, but like I said, the connection test simply failed all together until after I forwarded 1802 on the Uverse box.
3) Didn't get any messages about license issues. It's just always the above one about checking the address and trying again.
4) Went around and checked everyone's computers and it's live versions all around.

Not sure what to think anymore. Haha. Given that my internal network doesn't even seem to be functioning properly. Thanks for the information though. Not sure if anything I've posted above helps in anyways, but that's the situation so far.


Ayup - check everything that Trenloe suggests above. if you need someone to help you test or troubleshoot further I can assist.

I also made sure everyone used their own usernames so I could tell them apart. Haha. Even when I was testing and was just using test and test2 as my usernames, I went ahead and changed them to be sure and still no luck.

[damned]

1. That looks fine. See below regarding internal/external
2. If your setup is Internet -> Modem -> Router -> computer you will need to port forward TCP1802 on the modem to the router and on the router to the modem. If the users are getting connected then this is setup ok.
3. If you have Ultimate showing then you should not get license messages
4. Good

When connecting across the Internet use the Alias or External IP Address
When connecting using Hamachi use the GMs Hamachi IP which is not reported by FG
When connecting across a LAN use the Internal IP Address
When connecting a second instance on the GMs computer use the keyword localhost

What modules do you have activated and what modules have you green ticked to force load to the players?
Dont load modules you dont need. Eg if you have PHB and MM dont load the Basic and SRD ones.
Dont share/force-load anything with the players except the PHB (or the Basic or SRd equivalent if thats what you are using).
These modules are large - they will take some number of minutes for each player to get theirs downloaded.

Are you playing at the same location? Are you on Wifi?
If you are all on wifi get your books/resource selections sorted out first and then connect one player only using Internal address.
How many wifi bars do you each have? if its not 4/5 or better you could have issues with data integrity.
Once they have the desktop do the next person. And so on.

[Trenloe]

1) I'm not sure why, but I can't connect using the internal address. I can get the one connected through the external or alias, but not internal. Would the channel matter? I'm on 5ghz channel and they're on the 2.4ghz.
Is your 2.4GHz WiFi setup as a guest network? i.e. it just provides Internet access and doesn't allow internal network access? I think this might be the case if they can't connect on the internal IP address.

So, all of your players will be trying to go out to the Internet and back in through your port forwarding. Which is working OK as the connection test passes and one player can connect. I was wondering if there may be some limit on the router that doesn't allow multiple connections going out to the Internet and back into the same source network. I've just done a test on my network. Fired up my Ultimate FG on one PC, then tried to connect using the alias from two other PCs, the first one connects fine and the second one connects initially but then just hangs at the "Connecting" bar. But then I closed FG on the computer where I couldn't connect, waited for the first to fully connect and download and then I could connect. Not 100% reproducible, but definitely something seems to be impacting the multiple out-and-back connections using the alias.

I'd recommend you work to get all of your players on the same internal network connection so that they can connect on the internal IP address. But, then you're probably going to have issues with everyone running on a contentious WiFi network - but that's another story! ;)

[damned]

I'd recommend you work to get all of your players on the same internal network connection so that they can connect on the internal IP address. But, then you're probably going to have issues with everyone running on a contentious WiFi network - but that's another story! ;)

This is mostly an issue when connecting the first in patricular and at connection time each week. Once you are all connected unless you are sharing BIG maps it should be ok....

[Trenloe]

This is mostly an issue when connecting the first in patricular and at connection time each week. Once you are all connected unless you are sharing BIG maps it should be ok....
Unless you have the same issues this GM had using wireless for all the players: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33736-A-refresh-client-function-for-inconsistencies&p=285994&viewfull=1#post285994

[damned]

For sure :)
Using wireless definitely means you have to get it setup optimally....
And be sensible about the image sizes you share.
If everyone is in good close proximity to the wifi and you do the initial connection one at a time and you do above a decent wifi connection cant be worse than a single 1mbps upload which many people have.
If multiple people do the initial connection at the same time or you share a 4mb map to all your players at the same time the chances of contention occurring are about 100% :)
Even just getting the GM on to the LAN cable will have a big (positive) impact on this.

[CtrlAltFaceroll]

Thanks for the help everyone, and sorry again for the delay. Wanted to make sure what I'm saying is accurate before posting.

I only enabled one. At first it was LMoP, then I tried HotDQ and the just the standard 5e PHB extension. So far all have been the same. They connect, but get stuck on downloading files. My last attempt has been running for about 20 minutes now and hasn't moved past the first sliver. Even after I specifically went in and red marked all but the PHB in the library, the downloading files still hasn't gone anywhere.
We are playing at the same location, yes. I'm on a desktop while the others are laptops. Currently (and unfortunately) we're all on wireless connections.
I'll have to try and setup a LAN network tomorrow after work and I'll let you know if I can get the connection working through that.

My 2.4ghz is standard network, not a guest one.

Do you think Hamachi would have any better luck? I was trying to avoid using it for simplicity's sake, but if there's reasonable thought that I'd have better luck there I'm not so stubborn as to not. I've used it before, just on a different computer.

[damned]

Hi CtrlAltFaceroll can you confirm you are using the Internal IP for all LAN / WiFi clients?

When connecting across the Internet use the Alias or External IP Address
When connecting using Hamachi use the GMs Hamachi IP which is not reported by FG
When connecting across a LAN use the Internal IP Address
When connecting a second instance on the GMs computer use the keyword localhost

Trenloe was able to re-produce something similar to what you are reporting when doing more than one connection from the same network but using the Alias. Many routers/firewalls wont allow that at all (coming from the same network out thru the router and back in to another host on the same network).

Hamachi is not the right solution for your setup. Using the LAN IP is.

[CtrlAltFaceroll]

Hey, damned. When I try and use the internal ip I can't get even one connected. However, I think that's because when I set up the router I just set up an internet connection, a WAN. Networking isn't exactly my forte, but I plan on sorting that out once I'm home (didn't get around to it yesterday). I'll let you know how that goes and if I'm able to get everyone connected through the internal ip afterwards. I really appreciate the help you (and everyone!) have provided so thanks again. Hopefully this sorts it out. I'll post later on in the evening with my results.

[damned]

Hey, damned. When I try and use the internal ip I can't get even one connected. However, I think that's because when I set up the router I just set up an internet connection, a WAN. Networking isn't exactly my forte, but I plan on sorting that out once I'm home (didn't get around to it yesterday). I'll let you know how that goes and if I'm able to get everyone connected through the internal ip afterwards. I really appreciate the help you (and everyone!) have provided so thanks again. Hopefully this sorts it out. I'll post later on in the evening with my results.

Send me a PM and I will jump on with you and have a look ok.

[CtrlAltFaceroll]

Figured I should drop a quick update here just to say that everything is working good for me now. Thanks to everyone who helped!
It did seem to be the case where there was an issue running multiple computers out to the internet and then back into the same house and and an internal network (after a small hiccup on my part) resolved it.
Thanks again and apologies for probably should have been an obvious fix. Cheers.

[Trenloe]

Thanks again and apologies for probably should have been an obvious fix. Cheers.
It's only obvious once you know what it is. Glad you got going. :)

[Wingman]

my internal address box is blank and remains blank after selecting.
i am trying to hos a game where one person is over the internet and the rest are on the same wifi network.
the eternal person can connect but there is a connection error for anyone using my wifi

[damned]

FG wont pick up your Wine IP address - this is normal on the Mac Installs.