Difficulty Hosting a Session [Archive] - Fantasy Grounds Message Boards

Eric Anderson

September 16th, 2007, 06:03

Hello All,

I am having the worst time setting up to host a session. I spent many hours trying to drill a hole through my system's fire walls to open up Port 1802. I have a router (2wire 2701HG-B), running Windows XP, and have McAfee security center.

I have already tried to change the router firewall settings and am reasonably confident that I accomplished it correctly...But...its still not working. I've tried turning off both of my firewalls and restarting my CPU, then relogged onto FG2 with no success.

Please if there are any networking gurus out there I could use your assistance and input,

Thanks!

Griogre

September 16th, 2007, 07:11

Is there any hardware between your 2wire and the Internet? You usually need to port forward and open the firewall on every piece of hardware between your computer and the Internet.

Eric Anderson

September 16th, 2007, 13:27

I dont think there is any other hardware involved. The modem is internal right? My DSL line goes from router to wall.

Sgain

September 16th, 2007, 16:51

are you giving people your internal (firewalled) ip or your external ip? (from the other side of the firewall)? You may wish to use that random name generator thingie as I think it sets the hosting computer as unique.

bigdruid

September 16th, 2007, 17:51

In my configuration, which is using a Linksys router I need to:

* Give out my external address
* In the Applications/Games page of the router setup set 1802 to forward to the internal IP address of the machine involved.
* Recheck Applications/Games page right before I game as sometimes the IPs change internally

Also, I was never able to set that 'generate name' thing given that the program only saw my internal address and giving out a 192.168.0.0 range address wouldn't do any good.

Griogre

September 16th, 2007, 18:06

Usually with DSL you have a "modem" box somewhere. With Fiber from Verizon you will have the cable going straight into your router.

Sgain is right, you if you give out the IP number you should use the external one. You can find it by going to https://www.whatsmyip.org/ Write down the number or click to a different tab on your browers

Start FG2 as a host.

Once you know your IP address go to https://www.pcflank.com/ and select Advanced Port Scanner on the left under Test Your System. Click Start Test and make sure they are testing the right IP address. Under Advanced Port Scanner Settings tell it to scan port 1802. It will take a bit, about 30 seconds or so. You need this port open. If it doesn't say open players will not be able to connect. If it says stealthed then you probably have a firewall between you and the internet. Please note that just cutting off a software firewall does not open ports for most of them these days.

Eric Anderson

September 16th, 2007, 20:36

Thanks for the assistance, but after running those program tests from the previous post I found that my 1802 is "stealthed", from this point how do I go about opening it up?

Sorontar

September 16th, 2007, 20:45

Did you say you had gone into your router software and forwarded your traffic through port 1802 to your internal IP, I know that was the thing I had missed when I had this problem.

Eric Anderson

September 17th, 2007, 00:06

How do I forward to the inner IP address? Thought I did that when I allowed the 1802 port to open?

Hamish

September 17th, 2007, 07:56

It all depends on the type of DSL router you're using. You're looking for something that's probably called PAT (Port Address Translation). What is does is telling your router that incoming traffic from the internet on port 1802 should be forwarded to your computer running FG.

maartenlogghe

September 17th, 2007, 08:18

Another way to avoid all these problems is by using Hamachi. (www.hamachi.cc (https://www.hamachi.cc))

Make sure every player has it installed and connected to the same channel. You can now play Fantasy Grounds as if all clients and host are on the same LAN.

cheers,
maarten

Sorontar

September 17th, 2007, 09:12

How do I forward to the inner IP address? Thought I did that when I allowed the 1802 port to open?

Well I did mine on the web browser which was accessible by entering the internal IP of the router IIRC. Not sure if your router works like that though, should be in the documantation.

GoOrange

September 17th, 2007, 15:58

Thanks for the assistance, but after running those program tests from the previous post I found that my 1802 is "stealthed", from this point how do I go about opening it up?

Double check that you are forwarding the port correctly. If you need help doing this go to https://www.portforward.com/ for instructions.

There is a difference between "opening" a port and "forwarding" a port. The website above will tell you how to forward to port through your router to your computer.

Make sure to allow the program and port in your Mcaffee security program and with windows firewall. If you are having trouble configuring either of those, try just temporarily disabling them.

Use https://www.whatsmyip.org/ to figure out what your IP is and give this to whoever is trying to log into your game.

If you are still having trouble after all of this, tell us again exactly what you have done and how you did it, and what the specific error messages were.

Hope you are able to get this straightened out!

Griogre

September 17th, 2007, 19:45

Good advice above. If things seem too confusing, then just work on opening the port and then work on port forwarding.

If you get your port open that means the firewall(s) are no longer blocking or hiding the port. Once you do that you need to port forward 1802 to your computer.

Ports are like connection tunnels. The problem is you have a different external IP address different from the internal one of your computer. Potentially you could have a hundreds of computers on your internal LAN. How does the router know which computer on the LAN to send this data to? By port forwarding. You need to tell your router that is something comes in on port 1802 from the external IP address then send it on to the internal IP address of this computer – that is what port forwarding means.

Eric Anderson

September 18th, 2007, 03:54

VgnFrnd

September 18th, 2007, 04:09

I'm joining the conversation late, late, late, and I really don't have much to offer you in your current situation; but for what it's worth (not much), I'll tell you my experience: Over the past years, I've used two different Symantec firewalls and Zone Alarm, both the free and suite versions. I've also tried more than a handful of anti-spy guards. After dozens of undiagnosable problems that sound very much like what you
are experiencing now, I ditched them all. I no longer run firewalls or anti-spy programs. Instead, I rely on knowing how to read my processes, running a top-notch anti-virus program, keeping my browser settings tight, using robust router hardware with built-in security, and being very careful about the data that I permit to land on my hard drive or memory. My problems have been reduced to nilch. Of course, I am just a joe with a computer at home, so there isn't too much to attract hackers anyway (except for trojan hijackers, but I know how to spot them). Long story short: Try disabling your firewalls, even if only temporarily, and see if that fixes the problem.

GoOrange

September 18th, 2007, 04:14

Thanks for the input. I am getting super frustrated though. I have went through the suggestions to the point of accessing my router online page (2wire 2701HG-B) and my settings read:

Firewall Details
allowed applications: Fantasy Grounds II
Protocol: TCP
Port Numbers: 1802
Public IP: my IP is here (dont want to post it here though lol)

So, unless I've not done everything in the post I should be able to host a session but I still cannot do this. What didn't I do???

:o

I also noticed under the Firewall-summary page that
my internal IP was listed but my public IP was blank. Do I need to fill this in somehow?? If so How do I input it?

Are you forwarding the port as well? An open port doesn't do any good if it isn't being properly forwarded to the right computer. This is done by logging into your router configuration page. Detailed instructions based on your router can be found here: https://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/2wire/2700HG-B/default.htm

Have you done this yet?

If you have, and it still doesn't work, try selecting the Allow all applications box and see if that helps (this makes your computer a bit less secure, so you may not want to leave it on permanently).

Are your software firewalls on? Is Mcafee on? Is windows firewall enabled? Do you have any other antivirus, anti-spyware or firewalls installed on your machine?

VgnFrnd

September 18th, 2007, 04:14

One more recommendation: Network Magic. I've been running it now for almost two years on the seven computers that (from time to time) participate in my home network, and I have had zero configuration hassles.

I am in no way associated with Network Magic, other than being a 100% satisfied customer.

https://www.networkmagic.com/

VgnFrnd

September 18th, 2007, 04:25

Okay, one last piece of experience: I haven't run MacAfee, but Symantec firewalls remain activated even if when they are "shut down." The only way to really turn them off is to uninstall them. Even then, Symantec tech support is vague about whether uninstalling actually eliminates or reverses the changes it makes to a system. I would suspect that MacAfee may be similarly "robust," to the point where not running it doesn't actually disable it. Thus, when I decided to run my computers without local firewalls, I wiped the hard drives clean and reinstalled the operating systems fresh. I realize that this would be an extreme measure for you to take just to get FG to work. I don't work for tech support, and I can't even say for sure if this approach would solve your FG problems. But if you have experienced a string of problems like this before with your network configurations, I would strongly suspect that your firewall software is the culprit. Please feel free to ignore these ramblings if they are irrelevant to your situation.

VgnFrnd

September 18th, 2007, 04:30

Have you seen this?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4279

VgnFrnd

September 18th, 2007, 04:33

Or these?

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php?faq=networking#faq_networking_2

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php?faq=networking#faq_networking_3

Sorontar

September 18th, 2007, 08:22

Thanks for the input. I am getting super frustrated though. I have went through the suggestions to the point of accessing my router online page (2wire 2701HG-B) and my settings read:

Firewall Details
allowed applications: Fantasy Grounds II
Protocol: TCP
Port Numbers: 1802
Public IP: my IP is here (dont want to post it here though lol)

So, unless I've not done everything in the post I should be able to host a session but I still cannot do this. What didn't I do???

:o

I also noticed under the Firewall-summary page that
my internal IP was listed but my public IP was blank. Do I need to fill this in somehow?? If so How do I input it?

Yeah that doesn't sound as though you have forwarded the port yet just that FG is allowed to come through Port 1802, so it is coming through your router and kinda thinking "where the heck do I go now?"

Look at Pg 39 of THIS (https://www.2wire.com/pages/pdfs/5100-000326-000.Rev.A.pdf) which I think is your manual.

My router does this kind of thing under NAT, not read the rest of the manual but if it mentions it there it should tell you how to do it.

You should be doing something like the process described on this page

https://lc.netcomm.com.au/nat2.html

Anyway back to work ;)

Eric Anderson

September 18th, 2007, 12:53

I am trying to utilize the responses. I will update my future success or failures. Thanks for the assist. I still am unable to port forward with the 2wire router. I have followed the link provided by Vgnfrnd and am stuck at the port forwarding section.

Hamish

September 18th, 2007, 13:30

I think there was someone else with the same router and the same problem a while ago, Griogre gave him a pretty thorough walkthrough I think.

Here's the link:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7021&page=2

GoOrange

September 18th, 2007, 13:39

Go to portforward.com.

On the first page, click "routers"
Find your router from the list (I checked, it's there)
On the page for your router, click "default guide"

It gives step by step instructions, with lots of screenshots

Edit: It's what Sorontar linked to (didn't recognize his link when I posted this initially - sorry for the confusion)

Sorontar

September 18th, 2007, 13:40

Ah I think that's the manual I linked to :)

If you can't figure it I would suggest PMing Kunsgnos and seeing if he can send a screenie of what he did.

Go to portforward.com.

On the first page, click "routers"
Find your router from the list (I checked, it's there)
On the page for your router, click "default guide"

It gives step by step instructions, with lots of screenshots

https://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/2wire/2701HG-B/default.htm

GoOrange

September 18th, 2007, 14:44

One more thing occurred to me. I had trouble with port forwarding on my router (following the instructions to a "T"). Problems went away when I updated the router with the latest firmware. Check the company's website to see what the latest version is and see if that's what you are running.

Eric Anderson

September 18th, 2007, 15:54

That is exactly my frustration. I followed the instructions on portforward.com and still am getting nothing. I did it exactly per the default guide.

GoOrange

September 18th, 2007, 16:59

That is exactly my frustration. I followed the instructions on portforward.com and still am getting nothing. I did it exactly per the default guide.

OK, good.

- Next, try clicking the "allow all applications" box just to test if that works. If it doesn't work, uncheck it and go on to the next step.

- Check the company's website for firmware updates for the router, and make sure you have the latest version. This is very important as nothing we can tell you will fix a buggy firmware version.

-Again with the firewalls:
Have you turned off windows firewall?
Have you turned off McAfee?
Do you have any other antivirus, antispyware, or firewall software on your computer?
You may want to try uninstalling Mcafee to see if that is somehow still blocking traffic.

- It just dawned on me, exactly what is the problem? Are you receiving an error message? Are people unable to connect to your game? How are they trying to connect - with the direct IP or with an Alias? Have you tried both? Are you able to connect to yourself by starting two versions of the program.

Eric Anderson

September 18th, 2007, 18:05

GoOrange

September 18th, 2007, 18:21

Others cannot connect to my computer with either the direct IP address or the alias. I have configured my firewalls to allow port 1802 but have not tried to disable them entirely. Lastly I am able to connect to myself. I have checked for the latest software and I have it already. Any other suggestions??

Damn, this isn't looking good.

Other things to try:
-Try the "allow all programs" thing in your router.
-Try disabling the firewalls and completely turning off Mcafee.

Lastly, try plugging your computer directly into your modem without using the router (and the usual power everything down for a minute or two that goes along with this). This should tell you pretty definitively if it's a software problem with your firewalls etc. or a forwarding problem with your router.

Griogre

September 18th, 2007, 18:23

By the way, I recommend you not turn off your firewall. There is not a modern firewall these days that opens ports when it is cut off. I don't have McAfee, but I can almost garantee that cutting it off will not open your ports if it is a version release within the last couple of years. You are much better off leaving it on. Most firewalls will ask if you want to allow FG to act as a server - just tell it yes. There is also the little problem that if you cut off McAfee the odds are Windows is cutting the Windows firewall on automatically which, of course, is not set to allow connections on Port 1802. Save yourself some pain and just tell McAfee FG is OK.

If you have been turning your firewall off and on you also need to make sure you only have one software firewall on. If you have managed to get them both on you need to make sure you cut the windows firewall back off.

You can tell you have all your firewalls/security software working right when you start FG2 and port scan 1802 it is open. I should mention that uninstalling a firewall does not cause ports to open either. There was a guy with Panda that had to re-install it just so he could get them back open.

Finally, it is very important you have the latest firmware on that router as someone mentioned already.