Lost Server Token when Fantasy Grounds is Left Unattended

[Minty23185Fresh]

Let me start by apologizing if "token" is the wrong terminology for what I am experiencing.

I wish to leave Fantasy Grounds up and running, unattended, on a PC so that my "Demo" license players can attach to my instance of FG and manage their characters, at their leisure.

With FG Classic (using port forwarding, of course) this was not an issue. I did it all the time. But with FG Unity using cloud based connections it appears to be problematic.

I have a desktop, running up to date Windows 10, which has few other applications on it, it's not a "virgin" machine but there's not much on it. I installed Fantasy Grounds, ensured it was completely up to date, and started up a GM instance, using the cloud based connection services. One of my players immediately connected and was able to perform the character management that they desired. They then logged off.

I left the computer and Fantasy Grounds Unity running unattended while I did other things.

Another player tried to connect some time later and could not. When I went to the computer, it was still up and running (I had defeated all sleep options and screensavers). The image on my monitor looked exactly as I had left it. When I clicked on Fantasy Grounds, the FG desktop went "cloudy" (obscured) and FG was completely unresponsive. No amount of waiting time (up to an hour) rectified this.

I have since tried the exercise a few more times. Rebooting, restarting FG, and just walking away, leaving it running. After a couple hours I'd return to find that if I clicked on FG, its desktop obscured and was completely unresponsive.

What comes to mind are scenarios where I have left a web page up on my PC, returned hours later and when I tried to resume what I was doing, the browser informed me that the server token was lost (I believe that's the terminology).

So, is this unexpected behavior, not normal and it is a bug, or is it something that's going to happen with the cloud based connections? And that I can't reliably just leave FG running for my players to attach and manager their characters at their leisure?

If it is the latter, I'm unhappy with that answer, but FG should not just lock up and become unresponsive, maybe it should try to reconnect? Is that possible? If not, it still seems as though locking up and being completely unresponsive, in my opinion, is the sign of an immature application, something I wouldn't expect from FGU.

[EDIT] logs supplied in post #4 of this thread (per Zacchaeus' suggestion).

Thanks for your time, please advise.

[Zacchaeus]

You might want to post your log files which might contain an answer, or at least a clue. That is the log files immediately after the issue happens.

As an afterthought I often leave FGU running for hours on end and don’t see the issue. Mind you no one is ever connecting, which might be a factor which I’m not experiencing.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Thank you Zacchaeus do I have to restart FGU to dump those? Or are they readily available after FG hangs? (Where?)

(Nevermind, went looking, found them)

[Minty23185Fresh]

Console and Network logs attached

[anstett]

I know the FG servers went down at some point today from other comments. That might be what caused your issue Minty.

I leave my game up 24/7 for my players so they can log in to check things during the week as well. The only issues I have had is to restart everything once or twice a week to run updates, etc.

[Moon Wizard]

I have not seen that either, and I've left my server running for 8+ hours before.

There's nothing in the code that I'm aware of that limits the connection time, and the GM client attempts to re-register if it loses connection to the lobby server during the session.

Regards,
JPG

[Marquis_de_Taigeis]

you can use a direct connection instead of using the cloud

when loading the campaign on the right hand side select Lan

at the bottom of the screen it will give the machines ip addresses, set these as your port forwards in your router

then give the IP address to the players and they can use the join Lan game at the bottom of the join page

[Zacchaeus]

you can use a direct connection instead of using the cloud

when loading the campaign on the right hand side select Lan

at the bottom of the screen it will give the machines ip addresses, set these as your port forwards in your router

then give the IP address to the players and they can use the join Lan game at the bottom of the join page

You also need to Port Forward if you use LAN, and not everyone can do that. Cloud is easier and I don't really see that this would solve Minty's issue anyway. The problem is that for him FG is becoming non responsive if left running.

[Minty23185Fresh]

I know the FG servers went down at some point today from other comments....
Thanks, anstett If this is the cause of my problem, I would be elated. "I hope you're right. I really do."


... and the GM client attempts to re-register if it loses connection to the lobby server during the session...
Thank you Moon Wizard, this is what I had hoped for. So that's out of the equation.


you can use a direct connection instead of using the cloud...
Thanks Marquis_de_Taigeis, as I allude to in post #1 (for FGC) I was aware of this solution. And actually, I'm glad you mentioned it, for those that are following this conversation. My inference was quite vague. I've actually done this several times. I bounce around from VRBO to VRBO.

Once here in Mexico, I had to port forward through three consecutive routers. The RF transciever on the roof oddly enough required port forwarding. There was a thinnet intermediate router, paired with the transceiver and then a WiFi enabled router.

My current situation is a fiber-optic amplifier(-modem?) probably no port forwarding required, then a fiber optic specific (modem?) router supplied by the ISP which would need port forwarding, and they commonly change the default password, Then my mesh router system which has two satellites routers. I don't know if I can just port forward the main router or if I have to port forward each one of them.

The cloud based solution is much more palatable.


You also need to Port Forward if you use LAN, and not everyone can do that. Cloud is easier and I don't really see that this would solve Minty's issue anyway. The problem is that for him FG is becoming non responsive if left running.
Bingo! I completely agree. Though it would take the lost token question out of the equation, but Moon Wizard already did that.
Thanks Zacchaeus

[ddavison]

If it only happened yesterday, it is probably because of the server outage where all of the cloud servers at our host became unreachable for about 40 minutes. It's a pretty rare occurrence as this is the first time I can remember them going down in the last 5 years or so.

[Minty23185Fresh]

So I'll set up my Windows 11 laptop and leave it running. The desktop is probably my problem, or maybe the servers going down.

Thank you everyone.

[Minty23185Fresh]

I left FG running on my laptop for about 6 hours yesterday, with a locked screensaver. When I returned and unlocked it, everything was fine.

And then last night I tried leaving FG running unattended overnight on the Windows 10 Desktop that originally . When I returned this morning it was fine.

So I believe as Mr. Davison and others have stated, we can stamp this as "the servers went down", and call it solved.

I do want to reiterate though, FG locked up and was unresponsive. It had to be terminated using Task Manager or PC reboot. A not so friendly behavior by FG.

I'm going to try to simulate "server going down" by disconnecting from the FG server, so that I can give the Smiteworks engineers a bit more information. But in general, I believe my efforts will probably be fruitless because simply disconnecting is already handled pretty well by FG (I think).

The server going down may well be what I theorized in the title of this thread, a lost token.