Local network issues

[Beldak]

So I'm a new Fantasy Ground Ultimate user! I am DMing my family, consisting of my wife, and 2 kids, 10 and 6. We started playing LMoP on paper, and I noticed I was losing my 6-yr old's attention pretty quick.

So, I bought a Fantasy Grounds license and the LMoP module to keep the pace up a bit and keep his interest. Plus, what kid doesn't mind looking at a TV screen?! :)

So, what we've done so far, is I have a laptop that is is running my Ultimate license hosting, and then I open another instance on the same computer connected via localhost as the Players, and I HDMI out to a little TV screen I brought next to the table where we play.

However, (and here is the support issue), is I would like to use a 2nd laptop (my daughter's) to connect into my laptop and let her control the players so I can do the DM stuff. (It's hard to run both).

But, what's going on is I think her wifi hardware isn't as good as my laptop, as the packet loss goes up in the room we play in on just her computer, and thus loses connection after just a few minutes every time after connecting.

I can't get wired ethernet in that room, so my thought was to either connect by bluetooth, but I don't know what "Address" to type in on her computer to connect via bluetooth instead of WIFI.

Another option might be "mobile hotspot", but when I tried that it wasn't connecting to the IP of the host computer.

Any additional thoughts or suggestions?

[JohnD]

First, welcome! :)

Second, while I don't really know what to tell you myself, there are some people around here that will undoubtedly help you get this sorted out.

[Andraax]

Why don't you just buy a $10 ethernet switch and a couple ethernet cables?

[Trenloe]

Welcome to the FG forums Beldak.

Which IP address are you using to connect from your daughter's computer? Are you using the internal IP address - probably something like 192.168.xx.yy or 10.xx.yy.zz. When running on a local network the internal IP address of the GMs computer should be used to connect.

As you are using an Ultimate license your daughter will still need an Internet connection to briefly connect to the SmiteWorks server to verify your Ultimate license when she first connects to the GM instance. So using a local hub or direct connection to the GM's machine may not help as you'd still need the Internet connection.

I'd recommend trying to make the WiFi connection as reliable as possible. Minimise other WiFi use when you're playing, try not the use the microwave over near to where you play (e.g. if you're playing at the kitchen table), move the WiFi access point/router closer to where you play, check the WiFi adapter settings to see if you can increase the signal power settings maximum, etc., etc..

[dikdastard]

sorry I'm not sure how to link to other forum posts but see my post from today on win10 networking issues which is regarding a similar problem. Check your available laptops to see which ones if any are set up to run a hosted wifi network- basically fire up an admin cmd prompt and type in "netsh wlan show drivers" without the quotes. If the hardware is capable it will say "hosted network supported: yes" about halfway down. Its then really easy to configure such a machine to act as a wifi access point with internet sharing for all the other laptops you want to speak to each other directly, so if the problem is weak wifi signal back to your home router this should bypass the problem altogether and give you much better performance. Here is one guide but there are lots on the internet.

FG works absolutely fine like this, just type in the host machine IP address (as shown by typing ipconfig into your cmd prompt) into the launch screen of FG on one of the client laptops connected to the host network and it should connect straight up.

Alternatively if like me you have "modern" hardware that will only run a mobile hotspot I just cant get that to work either at present (see post). Another option I am considering which I believe should work is to get a £20 travel router which will do the same job as the adhoc hosted network set up described above with minimal extra clutter.

[Beldak]

sorry I'm not sure how to link to other forum posts but see my post from today on win10 networking issues which is regarding a similar problem. Check your available laptops to see which ones if any are set up to run a hosted wifi network- basically fire up an admin cmd prompt and type in "netsh wlan show drivers" without the quotes. If the hardware is capable it will say "hosted network supported: yes" about halfway down. Its then really easy to configure such a machine to act as a wifi access point with internet sharing for all the other laptops you want to speak to each other directly, so if the problem is weak wifi signal back to your home router this should bypass the problem altogether and give you much better performance. Here is one guide but there are lots on the internet.

FG works absolutely fine like this, just type in the host machine IP address (as shown by typing ipconfig into your cmd prompt) into the launch screen of FG on one of the client laptops connected to the host network and it should connect straight up.

Alternatively if like me you have "modern" hardware that will only run a mobile hotspot I just cant get that to work either at present (see post). Another option I am considering which I believe should work is to get a £20 travel router which will do the same job as the adhoc hosted network set up described above with minimal extra clutter.

OK, here's where I'm at = I did the netsh command and it does say hosted network support: Yes. What I'm trying to do now is plug an ethernet cord directly between the two, and share the WIFI of the hosted laptop. I can now access the internet just fine on the other laptop using this method, and most importantly get no packet loss! :)

However, now I can't connect to my FG host. I tried the IP that showed up in ipconfig for eth0 and is the same IP if I tracert from the other laptop, 192.168.137.1 - The client laptop has an IP of 192.168.137.74 and gateway is the 137.1 one.

However, when I try to connect that way, I just get an ERROR: Could not connect to the host. Check your network settings and verify

I have also tried the real internal IP of 10.0.0.155 which worked before when the client laptop is on the real WIFI and not sharing. And same error.

Maybe firewall issue or something else now?

[Bidmaron]

Standard ethernet wil not connect two computers. You need a switcher cable (often yellow). What you need is an ethernet switch (or the switcher cable [whatever the heck it is called]), and they are very cheap these days.

[Beldak]

Standard ethernet wil not connect two computers. You need a switcher cable (often yellow). What you need is an ethernet switch (or the switcher cable [whatever the heck it is called]), and they are very cheap these days.

Modern adapters that are Gigabit have auto-MDI so you don't need to use crossover patch cables anymore. I know it works because I can get internet on the connected laptop. But it still won't let me connect to the host FG.

[Bidmaron]

You know more about this than I do clearly. I am sure someone will be along soon to help you.

[dikdastard]

I'm not quite sure why you are confusing matters with the ethernet connection unless you are needing that to connect with your home broadband. If you have successfully set up a hosted network on one of your laptops you will have a virtual WiFi adapter and a real one showing up in network sharing centre. The real one should still be connected to the internet and the virtual one is connected to by your local laptops over their WiFi. The IP address needed for fg is the one used by the virtual adapter. If you need internet the final step would be to set up a bridge between the two WiFi adapter. It's all in the various walkthroughs

[Nylanfs]

How about eero to extend your wifi network?

https://eero.com/

[Bidmaron]

Wireless is not optimum. There are several cases where network contention caused untenable problems. Wired is preferred as Ethernet is designed to handle contention gracefully. If you are a GM that shares a lot of stuff, wireless can be a significant problem. This is only if you are using wireless to connect to local users. Not a problem if your users are connecting through internet and you are on wireless as a GM.

[Beldak]

It's all in the various walkthroughs

Can you point me in the direction of the walkthroughs you are mentioning? I went and looked at the thread you started and didn't see anything linked there. Thank you!

[Beldak]

OK, I figured it out! Thanks to the suggestions given above on where to look.

It was the Windows Firewall on my hosted laptop that caused the issue. Here's why: The virtual adaptor is automatically given the status of "public" vs. "private" in networking. So, I had to go into Windows Firewall, and change fantasygrounds to allow for both public and private traffic.

dikdastard was correct in that you have to use the virtual IP address to connect, which is 192.168.137.1 in cases of Internet Connection Sharing. So with this setup, I have this 2nd laptop connected via Ethernet cable (crossover cable not necessary if its a modern hardware with auto-MDI). This allows it to connect to my host laptop via super fast ethernet, and it also still allows the client laptop to have internet access through my host laptop's WIFI connection, which is much more stable for some reason. The only thing I did was turn WIFI off on the client laptop to ensure its using the ethernet connection.

I think this setup will be great! If I have multiple clients in the future, I could either use a cheapo hub/switch where they all connect to it, and I'm hosting. Or if all of their WIFI is fine, then they can just connect to my home's WIFI.

Hope this writeup helps the next person wanting to set up local FG play.

-Beldak

[LordEntrails]

...

Hope this writeup helps the next person wanting to set up local FG play.

-Beldak
Yep, thanks for filling us in on the solution. Always good to document it for the next one searching for an answer :)