Verifying what I think I understand about the LAN connection option

[Artimer1]

Hi all,

I currently use the cloud for my players to connect to my Fantasy Grounds Unity game, and I have noticed that there is quite a bit of lag that I was not experiencing when it was just me working inside my campaign. In an attempt to speed things up for everyone, I found a bunch of people in the forums talking about port forwarding and LAN. I am quite inexperienced with things of that nature, but after doing some digging I think I have an idea of what all that is and what I am supposed to do to get it working and the expected result. Before I go through the trouble though, I was hoping to just voice what I think I understand about it all and see about validating that getting port forwarding to work will achieve my goal of decreased lag for both myself and my players while playing.

What I think port forwarding is:
Port forwarding is the LAN connection right? They are the same thing? This is a way for me the DM to open my computer directly through a LAN cable connected from my computer to my router, to allow my players (none of whom are on my internet nor router) to connect from their home wifis to my router through the port 1802 which allows them to access my campaign more directly than if I was choosing to host through the cloud... right?

What I think I need from my players:
I think I need to get all the IP addresses of my players devices, so that I can later essentially "white-list" those IP addresses with my router, so that they will be able to access the port that I am offering them? I think that is all that I need from them.

What I think I need to do:
To my understanding, if I follow the instructions found in this fantasy grounds related page I should be good. (I actually lost track of it right now but it was either a fantasy grounds forum post or it was a part of one of the wikis. I will find it again.)

What I think will happen:
If I set things up correctly, then the players don't have to do anything fancy, they just connect to my game like before, right? Then, once connected, there will be significantly reduced lag, since I have given them direct access to my port on my router, right?

Thanks in advance for any pointers / advice!

[DCrumb]

Please note that the cloud connection is just used to broker the connection to your computer. It doesn't actually communicate through the cloud. There isn't lag when you are working on the campaign because there isn't any communication between your computer to other computers. Both connection options are just to connect the computers. When running, your computer is the server and speed of the application is dependent on many factors (a few are your upload speed, your graphics, your CPU, your players' download, your players' graphics, etc.).

[Sulimo]

What I think I need from my players:
I think I need to get all the IP addresses of my players devices, so that I can later essentially "white-list" those IP addresses with my router, so that they will be able to access the port that I am offering them? I think that is all that I need from them.





You pretty much have it all, however, the above item is not necessary, unless you really want to manage that at all times (it would severely complicate things). Your players public IP address can and will change on a semi-regular basis, unless they have paid for Static IPs from their ISPs (which is very unlikely unless they have a networking background), so you would have to continuously update the whitelist. If one (or all of your players) got a different IP address it would take time to troubleshoot why they suddenly could not connect.

Your IP address will change as well, so you'll have to update your players every time your IP address changes.



Like DCrumb mentions, Cloud is really the better option. It's simple and easy to use. Port forwarding for LAN will require constant upkeep to make sure things continue to work, and even then, things can break. This constant breaking is why there is a cloud option now, it's to simplify troubleshooting. Troubleshooting network connections can be a challenge, even for experienced users.

In the end, Cloud usually gives a direct connection between players and GM (per the Developers), then the cloud server drops out of the connection. It's only in rare circumstances that the Cloud server has to relay the traffic (again, per the developers in other comments).

[LordEntrails]

Sorry, but no, you've got some things wrong. :) But, you asked, so kudos!

LAN connection is where you use an IP address to connect. i.e. you have to give a specific technical set of numbers as your address. Think of this like postal mail and your computer is like an apartment inside a building. You have a public facing IP address (i.e. usually your modem), this is the address of the building (429 East My Street) This is what everyone in the world sees and how they get to your building. Then you have your local (private) IP address which is your apartment number (#207). Now if you tell someone your public IP, they won't know which door to go to in your building. But if you give them your local IP (apartment number) they won't know which building to go to.

I know, you are thinking why don't I give them both? Well you can't because the internet architecture doesn't let you.

That's where Port Forwarding comes in. It's like a mail forwarding from the post office, and it goes something like, hey, every time this building gets a package from Fantasy Grounds, sent it to apartment #207. (It's a little different than that, as it has to do with "ports" and "protocols", but it gives you a good idea of what's going on).

When configuring port forwarding, you do not need to know your players IP addresses. At least not for FG. It relies on ports and protocols. Their are firewalls that can do what you are talking about (reverse IP validation), but FG doesn't need that and most people do not setup their firewalls to do that.

The problem with Port Forwarding is that often times people have more than one modem/router/gateway in their network. i.e. their ISP might put several neighbors on one IP address. Or a university or building puts a bunch of users on one IP address. Then you have your own personal modem. So your modem/router/gateway which you can setup port forwarding on doesn't work because it does not have a public IP address.

If you still want to try port forwarding, use this resource: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?47051-Fantasy-Grounds-Classic-Connections-Explained

Now, as DCrumb said, Cloud connections is brokering. i.e. this is some guy standing on the street saying, "You want to talk to Bob's FG Server? Well he registered with me so let me give you directions" Brokering goes through a whole bunch of different ways to make the connection, and in most of those cases, it results in a connection that is just as fast as a LAN connection. So rarely will a LAN connection help with performance.

The biggest impacts on performance are: your upload speed (which is usually 10% of your download speed), and the amount of content you share, usually images.

[Zacchaeus]

These two articles will be much more useful that trying to set up a LAN connection https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1303052290/Whitelisting+or+Creating+Exceptions+for+Antivirus+ Applications and https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1981349889/Network+Troubleshooting

As has been mentioned above the Cloud is simply a brokering mechanism which pushes through all the stuff you would need to do to get a connection via LAN. In many case you won't even be able to set up Port Forwarding because you might be on an IPv6 network or your ISP won't allow you to Port Forward (unless you pay them more); or for many other reasons.

So please use the Cloud and save yourself a lot of heartache, especially since this is not going to have any impact at all on lag. Lag is caused by several factors not least of which is the internet speed of the slowest connected player. If you or any of your players have a slow network connection then you will most likely experience lag. You will also experience lag if you are working with huge maps; with many players and NPCs on the Combat Tracker; with many occulder points on line of sight on maps; with many lights on maps; or if you are using multiple (or even few depending on what they do) extensions. Or a combination of all of those things. You may also find connecting takes time if you have a lot of shared modules or if you share a lot of large images. And if you share large images during play that can also take time. Other factor include bandwidth issues (such as one or more players are using a wireless connection in a household with dozens of connected devices such as phones, ipads, video consoles, TVs, washing machines, and other household appliances.

The network troubleshooting article can point you towards other things which might help; such as making sure that FG is whitelisted in anti virus; and that any flood protection or extra security is switched off. Looking at all of the above will be time better spent that trying to port forward.

One other thing; define lag. When playing over the internet even with good connections there can be slight delays in things happening. Things may not happen as quickly as they would if you are just using FG yourself with no players connected. So expect some lag as compared to how quickly things happen when you are not connected to players.

[Artimer1]

Thank you all for the detail, I believe my maps are likely the culprit, but I will definitely check out those links as well.

[damned]

Bifg maps, large modules etc have to be shared TO the players so the data has to be sent from you to each of the players. This certainly will be slower than testing on your local machine.