Connection issues?

[Loki]

Hey all,

Anyone else having a connection issue on Sun March 2nd? We've been using the alias option seamlessly for a couple of sessions and then all of the sudden tonight no one can connect. I'm no expert by far... Anyone know what might be causing the connection issue? Anyone else have the same problems?

Thanks much,

Loki

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[Loki]

Just gonna take a stab in the dark here.. But it sounds like you are behind a router that is set for dynamic IP allocation. What that means is that you only "lease" your IP address from you router, and it will change from time to time. Sounds like it changed, and you are now forwarding ports to the wrong computer....

Again that is just a stab in the dark.. but the most common cause of that issue.
Hi jthm,

I am no networking expert at all so if it sounds like I know what I'm talking about...I don't. ;-)

That said, I am behind a router w/ a firewall in it, but doesn't (I might be off my rocker here.) the "alias" option of hosting a game take care of the dynamic ip problem? I've used it to host games three times previously and it's worked without a hitch. Last night though, no joy.

The thing that bothers me most is that I can't figure out what had changed between last night and the previous sessions. Nothing that I could see...

So do most people host games using a static ip (setting it up via TCP/IP and then port forwarding if they've got a firewall and a dynamic ip) or do they use the alias method?

Another odd thing is that on the off chance that it was on my end, my buddy tried using the alias option of hosting a game and I tried connecting. Again, no luck. Which makes me think that it was something other than our machines... But I'm no expert. ;-)

Thanks for the help.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[Loki]

Another thing that could cause the issue is if the Fantasy Grounds servers went down for some reason. However you would have gotten an error msg that said something like: "Warning connection lost to remote server" or something like that, Not to mention that had the Fantasy Grounds servers gone offline, my game would have been disconnected as well. I was hosting from 9:00pm till 1:30am last night with no connection issues.

Edited to say: Note all times are EST
jthm,

Makes sense... Any idea though why I couldn't connect the other direction? When my buddy and I were troubleshooting the issue we tried spawning / hosting a game each and connecting each way. We couldn't get it to fly either direction.

He physically turned off his firewall. But... in retrospect I'd imagine that he didn't have port 1802 forwarded. That might have been the issue on his end.

So I don't have to use a static IP on the host machine in order to use the alias do I? Just out of curiosity, were you also utilizing the alias feature when you were hosting last night? Or do you just set up (or already utilize) a static IP? Sorry for the barrage of questions... but also, if the router did reassign the internal IP can I manually get in there and reassign?

Thanks so much.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[Griogre]

..snip Not to mention that had the Fantasy Grounds servers gone offline, my game would have been disconnected as well. I was hosting from 9:00pm till 1:30am last night with no connection issues.

FYI, my understanding is the alias server is only used to match make initially. Once clients are connected nothing runs through the FG servers. Thus if while you playing the FG alias server went down you not notice it unless a new player tried to connect or an old one lost connection and tried to reconnect.

This was an important feature to me because it means you can play regardless of what happens to Smiteworks because you can always connect via direct IP and don't *need* their server - alias is convient, but not required.

[Loki]

jthm,

Excellent tutorial!

I'm going to mess with this again tonight and see if I can't get it up and running.

You've been a wellspring of knowledge. Thanks ever so much...

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[Jurble]

Hi guys,
im on a university campus here in Australia connected to the University network. As such im probably behind a bunch of routers and such making connection issues quite frustrating (need to use web messenger instead of normal MSN)

Im just wondering if it is possible to configure FG2 to cut through all that, perhaps if i can get help from the IT department here. Im fairly proficient with computers but not so good with networking at all.

FG locks up at "Getting package listing" for the updater over here :(

Just mainly wondering (unless someone knows how to get past this which would be my saviour) what i should be asking of the IT department?

From previous posts I need port 1802 open and get port forwarding? Im not even sure thats possible on a university network?

Thanks for any help you guys can give me! Much appreciated! :D

[Jurble]

just to add to my previous one, I found some info on connecting Skype through the university network (not sure if FG can be configured similarly)

I have a socks address and a port which it should be routed through, is it possible to change the port that FG connects out with? (am i even on the right track? hehe)

thanks guys :D

[Griogre]

Basically at a University you are screwed because you don't control the router and can't open ports or port forward. This doesn't normally effect players so once you get get FG updated you will be fine. To host you need to set up a VPN. I know people have successfully used Hamachi, a free VPN, to host. https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp?lang=en

[Jurble]

Righto thanks for that :)

So its updating i need a different connection for (which is fine can do that when i go home to a normal connection)

and after that, I can set up a VPN to play over the university connection?

thanks aton! :)

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[jthm0138]

Edited since my advice is not wanted by the community at large.

[Jurble]

Hey guys,

So the day has come, triyng ot join an FG game through the university network (and obviously not getting very far at all).

I loaded up Hamachi, found the settings needed for it to punch out of the university network into the net, but i guess that requires me to be running the game rather than joining.

Any idea how i could punch out and join a game?

cheers :D

[unerwünscht]

You should be able to join a game with no issue. Only the host needs the open ports (as far as I can tell).

[Griogre]

Correct, the player almost never has a problem connecting as long as the GM is set up right.