Anyone ever run a LAN game with FGU?

[Kai Lae]

Hello all, I would like to run a game using FGU by using a LAN. Idea is to use FGU to run the game (automation, plus hey, this way I don't have to buy the adventure book), but be in person for the better experience this provides. I got a netgear 8 port switch/hub for everyone to plug into, so all that the clients should have to do is to set their IP somewhat close to the IP that I'm using on my PC, then select the IP of my client in FGU, and connect.

Couple of questions:

1. Anyone actually do this? I'm curious how the experience was. Was it easy to connect? No one I have talked to yet seems to have tried this, so before I try it in a gaming session, I'd like to know what I should be thinking of. Things like what may go wrong, how to troubleshoot, etc. I want to play the game, not troubleshoot FGU.
2. Do you know if you need a connection to the internet or not? I've been told by the helpful people over at Fantasy Grounds Academy that they believe that you need a connection to the internet for the FGU client to authenticate which client you have (ultimate, free, etc). I have the ultimate client as DM, everyone else should be free. It is easier and simpler if no internet connection is needed to find a space to play in. Otherwise, I'd need somewhere that would be willing to allow access to their wireless or have public wireless available. I'd simply rather not bother, but I'm not sure how this actually works. Anyone know for sure?

Thanks for the help.

[LordEntrails]

Yes. If you know enough networking, like it sounds you do, it's easy.
If the host has an ultimate license, then your network needs internet connectivity to validate the license when each player connects. This can be as simple as using your phone as a hotspot. You don't need a lot of data and bandwidth. If everyone has a standard perpetual license, then you do not need internet.

[Kai Lae]

Yes. If you know enough networking, like it sounds you do, it's easy.
If the host has an ultimate license, then your network needs internet connectivity to validate the license when each player connects. This can be as simple as using your phone as a hotspot. You don't need a lot of data and bandwidth. If everyone has a standard perpetual license, then you do not need internet.

Setting IP addresses in windows so it doesn't just change them randomly for lulz is a pain :/

So, if I have a ultimate licence, and the players have downloaded FGU and have the free setup, I (and only I?) need to have a internet connection to authenticate that they have free setups when they connect to my client? Not 100% sure what you meant here.

What would be different if everyone had a standard licence? I mean, I have an ultimate licence, so anyone can connect to me. Just wondering the difference.

I don't have hotspot capability on my cell plan right now, so I'm trying to ensure that I need it for sure before I would contact the phone company to turn that on.

[Blahness98]

I agree with LE. If you know what you are doing, it isn't tough. I have done this before with a few people and did not have an issue. As you are doing everything offline, you would have to static address the clients connecting to your network. Take a few clicks in windows, but should not be too difficult to do. Get everyone on the same subnet and have them type in whatever your IP is and connect. If you have run FG before online, your firewall rules should already be open to the correct settings.

FG only requires a net connection for the host using the Ultimate License. It has to phone home to verify you have a valid license and the person connecting has a valid username whenever a demo/free user connects. So, once everyone connects, there should be no issue losing the hotspot connection and staying offline. If everyone has a valid license, no need for FG to phone home.

[ju95]

I will go ahead and note that if any of the free users want to use one of the paid dice sets, they will need to connect to the internet at some point to activate them, but yeah otherwise they don't need to be connected outside of the local network.

[Kai Lae]

I agree with LE. If you know what you are doing, it isn't tough. I have done this before with a few people and did not have an issue. As you are doing everything offline, you would have to static address the clients connecting to your network. Take a few clicks in windows, but should not be too difficult to do. Get everyone on the same subnet and have them type in whatever your IP is and connect. If you have run FG before online, your firewall rules should already be open to the correct settings.

FG only requires a net connection for the host using the Ultimate License. It has to phone home to verify you have a valid license and the person connecting has a valid username whenever a demo/free user connects. So, once everyone connects, there should be no issue losing the hotspot connection and staying offline. If everyone has a valid license, no need for FG to phone home.

I have experience connecting with ethernet to field busses for work. Not sure what you mean by static address exactly. My assumption is that you mean I would select static IP4 address instead of dynamic that windows loves-oh-so-very-much, to say 192.168.1.10. Each player connecting would have to do the same, but say if I had 5 players, player 1 would be .11, player 2 .12, etc, etc. 62706

Not 100% sure what some of these mean in the picture, but generally the easy way is to assign the "client" PC's to IP's close to the "master" PC.

[Kai Lae]

I will go ahead and note that if any of the free users want to use one of the paid dice sets, they will need to connect to the internet at some point to activate them, but yeah otherwise they don't need to be connected outside of the local network.


Running a 1 shot with people who have never used FGU.

[damned]

There is some incorrect info in this thread.
It is the demo license holders who will check the license when they connect so basically everyone needs internet if you have ultimate+demo licenses
If you all have standard or ultimate then it doesnt need internet so long as you are all on the same version
The hotspot thing is probably not accurate unless you also play the whole game on the hotspot

[Mekons]

I've been running a lan game weekly for a few years as well as an online game 2x month. The lan game was simple, just know the ip address of the host pc and allow fgu to connect when windows firewall pops up. The lan game actually seems to lag a bit more than the online game- maybe because 7 devices are all trying to transfer data across the same local network?

[damned]

I've been running a lan game weekly for a few years as well as an online game 2x month. The lan game was simple, just know the ip address of the host pc and allow fgu to connect when windows firewall pops up. The lan game actually seems to lag a bit more than the online game- maybe because 7 devices are all trying to transfer data across the same local network?

If you are playing on Wifi you could experience increased lag with that number of devices but really I think it is unlikely that on average the LAN game could be slower. single digit ms round trips vs 100s of ms.

[Kai Lae]

If you are playing on Wifi you could experience increased lag with that number of devices but really I think it is unlikely that on average the LAN game could be slower. single digit ms round trips vs 100s of ms.

I'd be curious if the PC's on that network pinged each other what the time reponse would be, because like you that seems odd to me.

[Griogre]

Maybe they were using a wireless PAN (personal area network) instead of a LAN? Because, yeah, LAN normally is faster.

[TVDinner]

My group does this every week, although I still leave the LAN connected to the outside world. I have used FGU's connection broker ("cloud") without trouble, but that sends all the data outside and back. I think I just had the clients connect one at a time so the "acquiring files" happened at different times. Doing it this way would avoid having to quickly learn the ins and outs of networking.

One week I got FGC running and connected via LAN on two laptops, slept them on battery, and hauled enough hardware over to another house and ran things there without an outside connection. I don't know if this still works on FGU. Test it by getting everything working with an outside connection, pull the network wire, leave things running, and come back in the morning.

If the above works, you could use a phone to tether/hotspot a machine on the network and let the licenses authorize, then drop the hotspot. This would require you learning how to set up a machine to route data between the local network and the phone. I assume the phone provider may not like this.

In the strange things to look out for area, AT&T provides me with "dual band" wifi built in to their router. We had constant disconnections with FGU over wifi until I disabled the 5ghz band. I never tracked it down fully, but I think my machines are far enough away from the router that the shorter 5ghz range caused too much channel hopping and somehow it caused problems with FGU.

[Mekons]

Yes, we're all connected via wifi in the house, not direct lan. Also, all the computers we're using are four year old cast offs, when we play online everyone is using higher end gear.

[Kai Lae]

Coming back to this again as I'm going to be trying this on Sunday. One of the players has a Mac (I have PC). I know how to get into windows 10/11 and set a PC IP address. Mac on the other hand...anyone have some advice on this that may have used one?

[damned]

Advice? Dont set any IPs.
Let your router assign IPs via DHCP as you will need internet for any free/demo clients.

[Kai Lae]

I'm used to having to do all this crap manually when I do it at work (I don't have in depth understanding, just enough to get E/IP talking to each other). The Netgear GS308EP I have seems to support DHCP. So, if I connect my laptop to a port after plugging it in, it should set itself up so that the other PC's with the player accounts will just be configured correct? Then they would just have to put in the IP address for the game in the "join" field for LAN, and good to go?

That'd be ideal.

[LordEntrails]

If everything has DHCP enabled, then just connect everything, the router will assign IPs to everything. You can then run netstat from cmd to find your host IP address for the player to input, or once you have your campaign open in FG you can type /info in the chat and it will tell you your IP (I think).