Only one client with demo license can connect to my ultimate server at a time

[nickabbey]

So first off, I am a long time IT professional with 25 years of experience in networking and desktop support and OS management. Not saying that out of hubris or anything, just letting responders know that there's no need to sugar coat any technical responses to my questions.

I am volunteering as a GM for a youth program at a local library. Their network is a huge mess. The network is owned by the town and the network admin doesn't work for the library directly, is never available when I'm there, and doesn't actually know what they're doing (they're a desktop support person for the town that hates having to be responsible for the library network and doesn't respond to any requests for support or assistance).
So I'm kind of on my own on this one and really need some help finding a work around.

My tabletop is running on a Mac. I did not use the mac installer (it wasn't available when I started with FG), but I keep my wineskin and wine up to date. Players on windows and mac machines connect to me and I am able to use a second install in a different wineskin to connect locally via 127.0.0.1. It works flawlessly when I run my table from home, people are able to connect to my machine over the internet using my alias or while on my local home network via IP address or alias. So I know the issue isn't on my machine specifically.

The library provides laptops to use are which ancient Windows XP machines. They use one of those public networks where the browser pops up as soon as you log in or disconnect/reconnect the NIC and you have to agree to terms of use before any network traffic will flow. This doesn't really get in the way, but if I don't click that agreement then I get no network traffic at all. I went into the Windows firewall and created an exception for fg and the updater, and started them up with blank entries for the serial numbers. They are able to check for updates and the app starts and runs. I am unable to connect to my server via alias, but this is not surprising as there is no port forwarding in place to point at my mac. When my mac and the client laptops are on the same wifi network and we have all clicked agree on the public internet hotspot page, they CAN connect to my machine via wifi IP address. However, when this happens, I am only able to connect one demo machine at a time to my ultimate server. If more than one user tries to connect, I get licensing error along the lines of "license conflict" (unfortunately, I'm doing this from memory and don't have the exact error message recorded).

Since I didn't know if the messy network config was the issue, I brought in my own wifi router in, connected the laptops via wired connections, and gave them all static IP addresses. This wifi router did NOT have any network connectivity, it wasn't connected to the internet in any way. I was just trying to isolate the machines and have them connect only to one another. Since I was using static IP's and manually entering the static IP of my server in the alias field of the clients, I figured I'd be ok. It DID work, but again only for one client at a time, giving me the same licensing error when more than one client tried to connect.

I'm at a bit of a loss here. I didn't know if the lack of internet connectivity on my isolated network could be part of the issue, maybe FG "phones home" to check licensing or something? Since I was able to get a single machine to connect on both the library and my isolated network I don't think so?

[Zacchaeus]

FG does indeed, phone home to check that you have a valid license. Any user connecting to you needs an internet connection to check that you have a valid license. Since from what I am reading (and I can't say I really understand it much) you don't have such a connection and/or the user doesn't therefore your license can't be verified.

[nickabbey]

which .exe file is actually doing the phone home portion? When using the library network, I may need to allow the correct executable through the windows firewall.

The ones I see are:
FantasyGrounds.exe
FantasyGroundsUpdater.exe
FGUpdaterEngine.exe

I'll probably just white list them all or turn the windows firewall off completely for testing.
My "tech pro OCD" wants me to only whitelist the right one though. :)

[Moon Wizard]

A license conflict means that there is a license entered on that machine that conflicts with either the GM license or another player license.

The main client phones home to make sure that the Ultimate license that it is connecting to is valid.

Regards,
JPG

[nickabbey]

By "the main client" do you mean the fantasygrounds.exe file phones home? On just my server, or on my server and all clients?

[Moon Wizard]

Just the player clients.
JPG

[nickabbey]

A license conflict means that there is a license entered on that machine that conflicts with either the GM license or another player license.

The main client phones home to make sure that the Ultimate license that it is connecting to is valid.

Regards,
JPG

Assuming that the machines can all phone home via an internet connection, and that I have the ultimate license key on my local machine ONLY, does this mean that I need to do something specific on the client machines? Could the issue be that all the client machines were installed by leaving the s/n blank, and they specifically need a demo license key?

[Zacchaeus]

There is no such thing as a demo license key. The only key will be your ultimate key on the host machine. As i say I'm not quite with you on what it is you are doing but on an internal network the clients connect via the local IP address of the host - not the external IP address or the alias. I take it that is what you are doing?

[nickabbey]

Well, if this is most likely a licensing issue, then let's take the whole network piece out of the equation and confirm that I'm not screwing myself over by doing my installation/licensing incorrectly.

Here's what I did on each of the laptops:
downloaded https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FGWebInstall.exe
Installed it
Went to the windows firewall and added a rule to allow both fantastygrounds.exe and fgupdater.exe to make outbound connections and accept inbound connections from anywhere
Ran the fgupdater to make sure everything on the local machine was installed and up to date (and to verify that the windows firewall rules were working to allow the app to make outbound connections)
Since I'm writing this from memory, I have to admit that I'm not sure, but I THINK it prompted for me to enter license key for fg and gave the option for forum or steam credentials. I left all of these blank and just clicked ok.
Connected to the private IP address of my server from a laptop, it worked
Connected to the private IP address of my server from a second laptop, received the license conflict error


From this description, can you tell if I've done anything wrong or have incorrect expectations?

[Zacchaeus]

One possibility springs to mind. As you are aware an Ultimate license holder can have any number of demo clients connect. However a standard license holder can only ever have one (and only that one client) connect. So that begs the question have you updated correctly to your Ultimate license. Check that you have the correct licence key in settings at the top and you have nothing in the second box. If you have the correct license it should say V 3.3.4 Ultimate at the top right corner of the start screen.

[nickabbey]

One possibility springs to mind. As you are aware an Ultimate license holder can have any number of demo clients connect. However a standard license holder can only ever have one (and only that one client) connect. So that begs the question have you updated correctly to your Ultimate license. Check that you have the correct licence key in settings at the top and you have nothing in the second box. If you have the correct license it should say V 3.3.4 Ultimate at the top right corner of the start screen.

I just double checked, my local machine DOES say that it's an ultimate license.
regarding the process I followed in my last post, did I do something wrong on the client machines, perhaps?
If not, then I almost certainly have an issue with the client machines phoning home over the messed up library network.

Follow up question, if the network issues at the library are stopping me from validating my ultimate license, could that be part of the issue too? Is there a log somewhere in the FG folders that gets created (on the server or clients) which I can use to troubleshoot the issue?

[Zacchaeus]

I don't know; I've reached the limit of what I can think of. I assume that the demo clients don't have a license key entered in the settings and that they are actually demo clients and not licensed products. As MW says above a licence conflict usually means two machines are trying to connect with the same license key.

[nickabbey]

OK, thanks for trying to assist. At least I know that there is a "phone home" step involved. that's most likely where my issue lies. I'll do the needful to make it work. I'm probably going to have to get fancy with the network by tethering my cell phone to my computer and them letting it act as the modem for my wifi router. Good thing I got an unlimited plan...

[Moon Wizard]

For the license key conflict, make sure that the license key field on the player clients is empty. Also, I'm assuming that the player clients are running on separate machines from the GM client.

Otherwise, if it says that the host is running an unauthorized copy, then that is an indication that the license check is failing.

It would help to get the exact error message.

Regards,
JPG

[nickabbey]

For the license key conflict, make sure that the license key field on the player clients is empty. Also, I'm assuming that the player clients are running on separate machines from the GM client.

Otherwise, if it says that the host is running an unauthorized copy, then that is an indication that the license check is failing.

It would help to get the exact error message.

Regards,
JPG

Cool cool, this is literally exactly what I was thinking and planning on checking. The clients are on individual laptops, and the serial number fields are blank. Next session is in 2 weeks, and I'm going to the library to test it out the weekend before. If I don't get it sorted, I'll def get the specific error message and post again.

I'm thinking that the issue is with my machine phoning home, so the ultimate license can't be validated and only one client machine is able to connect at a time.

[Nylanfs]

You only need an internet connection on the client machines at connection. You could hotspot your phone for the couple of minutes that they need to phone home, then turn it off if it turns out to be a internal network issue. Also the clients don't need to have port forward done on them, just the GM's machine needs the port forward.

[damned]

You only need an internet connection on the client machines at connection. You could hotspot your phone for the couple of minutes that they need to phone home, then turn it off if it turns out to be a internal network issue. Also the clients don't need to have port forward done on them, just the GM's machine needs the port forward.

Id think the library computers are probably quite locked down.

[Andraax]

Also the clients don't need to have port forward done on them, just the GM's machine needs the port forward.

And even that is not needed if all the players are on the same network as the GM.

[Xemit]

Any chance some machines are using wireless and others are on wired? On some routers those two networks can be separated and are not bridged. At the very least, all players should be able to ping the host using the 'internal' host IP. Firewall settings can be set to block the ping at the host, which would give a false fail on this test.

Exact error message will help a lot in us helping you.

You can also try connecting the players in reverse order to confirm if it a specific player, or the second to join.

[Trenloe]

Exact error message will help a lot in us helping you.
Yep, this is key in tracking down the exact issue/s here.