Connection Test Failure

[natashalee]

Hi, I know this has been posted about a million times. First off, we have two computers that we play with on the same router. We have been through ALL of the steps. Literally all of them. Even extras. We got everything working for a little bit and then all the sudden the test started failing again. Everything is updated. Nothing has changed since we had it working.

My questions to you technically inclined people is this: why would the test connection fail on one computer and not the other?

To elaborate, we use his computer for GMing and mine as a player. We are in the same house, on the same router so we have the same router settings between computers. My computer is able to create and load and allow players to join a campaign. So why can his not?

[Trenloe]

My questions to you technically inclined people is this: why would the test connection fail on one computer and not the other?
Because port forwarding only works for one computer at a time - because incoming port 1802 can only be forwarded to one computer.

What did you do to get your computer to work? Do the same to make it work for the GM's computer. If you added a port forwarding rule to your Internet router, change it to point to the GMs computer.

[natashalee]

Everything has been done with both computers and his computer was working. Then we didn't log on for a few weeks and suddenly it doesn't work. As for the port forward, it is forwarded to his computer though we do both have the same local IP

[Andraax]

You can't both have the same IP. Only one computer is allowed with each IP on a network.

[Trenloe]

Everything has been done with both computers and his computer was working. Then we didn't log on for a few weeks and suddenly it doesn't work. As for the port forward, it is forwarded to his computer though we do both have the same local IP
I don't know how you can both have the same local IP address - that wouldn't work for any network, let alone FG.

Make sure your two computers have different IP addresses. Then double check that the port forwarding you have setup in the Internet router is set for TCP port 1802 to the IP address of the GMs computer double check what the GMs IP address is now, don't assume it hasn't changed. There should only be one port forwarding rule for TCP port 1802.

[natashalee]

I officially hate my router. It had us both listed as the same is for some reason so it was going to mine. I don't know how it was working before since we didn't change settings but thank you. Switched .16 to .18 and got it fixed.

[Trenloe]

Switched .16 to .18 and got it fixed.
Great news! :)

[natashalee]

Do ip addresses Change? Lol I got it fixed, so thank you guys.

[Trenloe]

Yeah, IP addresses can change - most are assigned dynamically by DHCP (which runs on your router), they usually give you the same IP address each time, but sometimes not. You can set the GMs computer to have a statically assigned IP address.

[dberkompas]

Yes, IP addresses DO change. You should setup 'address reservation' which some people mistakenly call a static IP address.

What this does is allows your router to always give your computer the same address.


Dave

[Nylanfs]

It's static IP <--- the hill I'll die on. :)

[Xemit]

Static IP and Reserved IP produce similar results, but are, in fact different. A Static IP is an IP (and domain mask) that is directly configured in the network port configuration dialog on the computer (or device). A Reserved IP is an unchanging IP that is configured on the DHCP server to be provided to a specific device (based on its MAC, which are all different). If there is no DHCP server, then everything would be configured with Static IP. If there is a DHCP server, then configuring the constant IP to a particular computer is best done through a reserve. Most DHCP server configuration UIs will refer to these constant IPs as Static IPs. It's a subtle error, but for most users it doesn't matter.

Setting up two computers on the same LAN with the same IP will cause all sorts of 'bad behaviour'. Both should be throwing error dialogs that a duplicate IP is present. Some stuff will 'work OK'. Some stuff will almost work, but fail in spectacular ways. Other stuff will outright fail badly.

With all computers using dynamic IPs on a LAN with DHCP server should never happen that they are matching. If at least one has been configured with a static IP and that IP matches a dynamic one in use, bad things will occur.

To prevent that from happening, it is recommended to configure a reserved IP on the DHCP server, rather than configure a static IP.

I worked in a company many years back that was using network connected cameras. Our partner company was custom making these network cameras for us. A system would use five cameras to image the area of interest. They had burned the firmware in these units to give them all the same MAC and the same Static IP. For several days they couldn't figure out why things worked great with one camera hooked up, but everything stopped as soon as a second camera was hooked to the network.

I was working on software for another part of the system and not directly working with them. At the end of the second day of failures, the partner company firmware developers asked for my assistance. I spotted the issue in a couple of minutes of investigation. MACs were reprogrammed and different Static IPs were assigned to each camera, and everything worked again.

Even the 'experts' can get this kind of thing mixed up.

[faeldokiko]

Frustrating! The game is working perfectly. Just one update and stop working.

[Zacchaeus]

Frustrating! The game is working perfectly. Just one update and stop working.

Check that your network is still set to private; Windows updates often revert the network to public for some reason. If that isn't the issue make sure that your Anti virus doesn't have multiple rules for FG. If so delete them all and make a fresh one (especially if you use Window Defender). If that still doesn't solve the issue then most likely your computer's IP address has changed and you'll need to update your port forward rule to point to the new address.