Can't connect...port and firewall open [Archive] - Fantasy Grounds Message Boards

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 15:19

I just switched to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and now I can't connect. I have port 1802 open and I have the firewall set to let Fantasy Grounds through and I can't connect. What else do I need to do? My antivius is Windows Defender if that helps. Thank you in advance for any help.

Mike

Trenloe

January 21st, 2020, 15:43

Check that the port forwarding on your router is setup to go to the IP address of your GM computer. This IP address may have changed with you switching to Windows 10.

Zacchaeus

January 21st, 2020, 16:06

And make sure that your network is set to private - another thing that could have changed with your upgrade.

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 16:12

Thank you for your help, Trenloe. So is the ip address the internal or external address that I put in? I have 10.0.0.251 and 73.157.121.213, first one is internal, second external.

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 16:24

Thank you, Zacchaeus. It's set to private and still isn't working. I was dreading upgrading to Windows 10 and this just confirmed it. Also, would uninstalling FG and resinstalling it help?

Trenloe

January 21st, 2020, 17:06

Uninstalling FG probably won't help at this stage.

You use the Internal address for your router port forwarding.

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 17:45

So in my port forwarding page on the Xfinity site, my options are FTP, AIM, HTTP, PPTP, HTTPs, Telnet, SSH and Other. I had it on "Other". Is this the right option? Also, TCP, UDP and TCP/UDP. I have it set to TCP. Is this correct?

Arwarkr

January 21st, 2020, 18:15

Usually, those options are presets for ports associated with certain services (such as 443 for HTTPS or port 22 for SSH). If you choose "Other", you should have free reign, and 1802 TCP is indeed the correct port for FG.

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 18:48

Well, I did something I probably shouldn't have done. I uninstalled FG and now I can't download it again from the website. My firewall is completely off and my port 1802 is open...I'm at my wit's end.

Arwarkr

January 21st, 2020, 18:55

A shot in the dark here: have you double-checked your firewall settings to see if there are multiple entries for FG and let all of them through? I have like 3 or 4 entries for FG; I think the Windows Firewall recognizes FG as a new program after certain updates (probably when the .exe is modified by the update).

It's certainly a weird issue to be caused by an upgrade to Win 10. Outside of the firewall and/or network settings changing or being lost, I don't see how the upgrade should affect FG. My Win 10 computers run FG just fine. There might be something else going on which merely coincides with the upgrade.

Niles

January 21st, 2020, 19:02

Thanks for responding. Yes, I have two Fantasy Grounds listed on the inbound rules of the firewall and they are both enabled. Very strange. Thanks again for your help. One last thing, but I don't think it has anything to do with the connection. I have something called Open Shell which skins Windows 10 to look like Windows 7. But it's only a skin and doesn't mess with the inner workings of Windows 10. Just thought I'd mention it.

Moon Wizard

January 21st, 2020, 19:19

The link to the installer is:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FGWebInstall.exe

If that's not working, then some sort of security software is blocking downloads or quarantining the file after download.

Regards,
JPG

Zacchaeus

January 21st, 2020, 21:00

If you are using XFinity then you likely won't be able to port forward unless you use the gateway as a bridge to a router that you purchase yourself.

Trenloe

January 21st, 2020, 21:04

If you are using XFinity then you likely won't be able to port forward unless you use the gateway as a bridge to a router that you purchase yourself.
Not sure about this. Do you have a source for this info?

Zacchaeus

January 21st, 2020, 22:07

Not sure about this. Do you have a source for this info?

I'm repeating what someone has said in Discord. He had considerable difficulty in using the XFinity Gateway and got nowhere with their customer support; he ended up buying his own router and using the Gateway as a bridge. Several others agreed with the solution and had done something similar. Having said that I have been able to get some people connected with XFinity by phoning their customer support and asking for port 1802 to be opened. It seems to be variable as to who you manage to get to speak to at their end.

Trenloe

January 21st, 2020, 22:28

The Xfinity gateways have ISP level security which can be controlled via a web page at the ISP level. Details here: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/using-xfinity-xfi-advanced-security

This includes blocking inbound connections and other ISP level security. Port forwarding can also be setup using the web page - all details in the link.

Zacchaeus

January 21st, 2020, 22:38

Thanks for the link. A lot of people seem to have issues with Xfinity so that’s a useful place to direct them to.

damned

January 22nd, 2020, 01:09

Use the link Trenloe posted
Change your TCP port forward to your computers new LAN IP

Why do people uninstall....?

Niles

January 22nd, 2020, 17:29

Use the link Trenloe posted
Change your TCP port forward to your computers new LAN IP

Why do people uninstall....?

Is this the computer's external address or internal address? Someone told me above it's internal. And people uninstall because we're not all Yoda's of computing like you guys are :D and we get really frustrated trying to figure this stuff out!

Niles

January 22nd, 2020, 17:59

Thank you for the info. I was using the same modem before with Windows 7 playing Fantasy Grounds. It was when I switched to Windows 10 that all these connections problems started happening

Niles

January 22nd, 2020, 18:37

If you are using XFinity then you likely won't be able to port forward unless you use the gateway as a bridge to a router that you purchase yourself.

Hi Zacchaeus, a little success here. I used bridge mode on my modem and I'm able to connect now. But now the problem is the modem turned off my wi-fi in my house to use bridge mode. Do I still need a separate router now to get wifi in my house and use bridge mode? Thank you again for your help.

Zacchaeus

January 22nd, 2020, 19:00

Hi Zacchaeus, a little success here. I used bridge mode on my modem and I'm able to connect now. But now the problem is the modem turned off my wi-fi in my house to use bridge mode. Do I still need a separate router now to get wifi in my house and use bridge mode? Thank you again for your help.

Did you have a look at the web page that Trenloe linked in post #16 above. Apparently it is possible to port forward xfinity; the info I gave you might not be terribly accurate.

Niles

January 22nd, 2020, 19:08

Hi Zacchaeus, a little success here. I used bridge mode on my modem and I'm able to connect now. But now the problem is the modem turned off my wi-fi in my house to use bridge mode. Do I still need a separate router now to get wifi in my house and use bridge mode? Thank you again for your help.

OK! Finally figured all this stuff out. For those with an Xfinity Gateway modem, it can act as both a modem and router. You have to go in and turn on bridge mode. However, it will turn off your wifi. If you call Xfinity, they will activate a setting on their end to allow both bridge mode and wifi. Thanks for all the advice from everyone on here, it's really appreciated!

Niles

January 22nd, 2020, 22:10

Did you have a look at the web page that Trenloe linked in post #16 above. Apparently it is possible to port forward xfinity; the info I gave you might not be terribly accurate.

Lol! Spoke too soon. So when I called Xfinity, I thought they were configuring my modem to be in bridge mode and transmit wifi at the same time. They simply turned my wifi back on and that in turn turned off bridge mode on my modem. Apparently, you can't do both at the same time, but the modem is a modem AND router. I'm all sorts of confused. But in your opinion, if I were to buy a separate router and use my present modem as a bridge, like you suggested above, do you think all this would work?

Trenloe

January 22nd, 2020, 22:14

Have you looked at doing port forwarding in the web page I linked above (post #16)?

As I mentioned in post #6 - port forward to the internal IP address of the GM computer.

Niles

January 23rd, 2020, 00:30

Have you looked at doing port forwarding in the web page I linked above (post #16)?

As I mentioned in post #6 - port forward to the internal IP address of the GM computer.

Oh, yes. I forwarded port 1802 to the internal IP address of my computer and was still having problems connecting until I turned on bridge mode on the modem. But that cut off my wifi. Xfinity said I can't be in bridge mode and have wifi at the same time, even though the modem is both modem and router. And that's why I was asking about the extra router to see if I could be in bridge mode for FG and still have a wifi signal in my house.

Andraax

January 23rd, 2020, 01:15

Yes, put your modem in bridge mode, then buy a personal router for your wifi needs. Forward the port on the modem to your router, then forward the port from the router to your PC.

damned

January 23rd, 2020, 12:36

And people uninstall because we're not all Yoda's of computing like you guys are :D and we get really frustrated trying to figure this stuff out!

I wrote it not as a dig at you but because if its not said people will still do it.
If the app cant update, uninstalling it will leave you with no app at all.
Which you already know now but spelling it out for the next person thats all :bandit:

Niles

January 23rd, 2020, 23:24

I wrote it not as a dig at you but because if its not said people will still do it.
If the app cant update, uninstalling it will leave you with no app at all.
Which you already know now but spelling it out for the next person thats all :bandit:

I didn't take it as a dig, damned. I already knew that uninstalling and reinstalling probably wouldn't work but I just got desperate for a fix. Thanks to all you guys here on forums for your help. It's really appreciated!

damned

January 24th, 2020, 01:32

Hi Niles this really should work if Win7 to Win10 is the only change.
If you PM me your email address I can have a look at it remotely with you.

damned

January 25th, 2020, 08:56

Another Comcast/xfinity issue where they are blocking your port forwards with their network side firewall.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/using-xfinity-xfi-advanced-security

Trenloe

January 25th, 2020, 10:06

Another Comcast/xfinity issue where they are blocking your port forwards with their network side firewall.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/using-xfinity-xfi-advanced-security
I'd been mentioning that for a while in this thread. Do you have details of exactly what was needed to be done in the XFinity security software? Is it a case of following the Port Forward guide (correctly): https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xfi-port-forwarding Or is there something else that needs to be done?

damned

January 25th, 2020, 14:11

Set your port forward as normal.
Then when you do a Test Connection it might work the first time but will get blocked after that because its an incoming connection externally initiated.
Player connections are the same - initially connects and then gets firewalled.

You need to login to the online firewall, view the Issues, and then click each connection and choose allow.
This will only allow for 30days and you will need to do it again.

damned

January 26th, 2020, 00:04

Niles do yuo think you could screenshot/doco the process in better detail than what I did?
It would be very helpful for the many others that this will effect sooner or later.

Nrrdy

January 26th, 2020, 01:11

This was a help today...thank you

Nrrdy

January 26th, 2020, 01:13

Niles

January 27th, 2020, 01:27

I'd be glad to, Damned! So log into xfinity.com/myxfi, NOT the admin page where you port forward. This would be where you can pay your monthly bill. Click on Network, then Advanced Security, then you'll see all the devices connected to your wifi. It will probably show that there were "threats" to your devices. Click on your device that runs Fantasy Grounds. The next page will say "Unauthorized Access Attempt and specify the number of threats to your device. Click on that and the next page will say "threat history". Click on that. Now you can click on "allow" to let FG and anyone else trying to access Port 1802 through. But as damned said, it's only for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, you have to allow it all again. I had a Comcast tech out and he said this extra layer of security can't be bypassed and even the newest of modems will have it.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31337

31337

Nylanfs

January 27th, 2020, 13:26

Ugggggg, now I have it to. Activated last week some time.

Niles

January 27th, 2020, 17:20

Ugggggg, now I have it to. Activated last week some time.

I know, right? I was about pulling my hair out trying to figure it out, until damned helped me. Also, the reps you talk to on the phone or online don't have a clue.