Help! Suddenly no one can connect!

[Morfedel]

Help!

I havent changed my network settings one bit, we played last week, and we tested the server, several times, no problem. Suddenly, today, no one can connect!

Does someone know if something is going on that would prevent that?!

[Phystus]

I'm a newbie at this, but I know some things to try. Do you use the alias server? If not, your IP address may have changed. Mine changes occasionally, seemingly at random. You can go here https://www.whatsmyip.org/ to check it.

There's a series of steps that Smiteworks suggest here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php?faq=fantasy_grounds_faq#faq_networking

Hope that helps.

~P

[Polyhedral]

Yes, almost all broadband connections have a dynamic IP which means it changes every now and then. Sometimes everytime you shut down. There are services like DynDNS (which is free if memory serves, I used to use it for Dominions games). You can get fixed Ips from some ISPs but that costs extra usually.

[unerwünscht]

Yes, almost all broadband connections have a dynamic IP which means it changes every now and then. Sometimes everytime you shut down. There are services like DynDNS (which is free if memory serves, I used to use it for Dominions games). You can get fixed Ips from some ISPs but that costs extra usually.

I don't want to say you are wrong. But if you are in America your IP is on a lease and the minimum lease in the united states (thanks to the Digital Millenium Anti-Piracy Act) is 168 hours, which translates to 7 days. Most ISPs in the United States have switched to holding an IP lease for about 30 days, due to the fact that everyone is scared of the secret service busting down their door because some downloaded a movie.

[Tenian]

It's more likely his internal IP address changed and he has to update the port forwarding in his router.

From time to time I have to do this due to power outages, router resets, etc.

[Morfedel]

Update my port forwarding how? Do you mean double check that 1801-1803 are forwarded? I did that.... or did you mean something else?

[Wargamer777]

Morfedel,

Do you have more than one computer hooked up to your network at home?

If so, it is possible your internal ip addresses have changed.

[Tenian]

Usually when you do port forwarding you have to type the address of the machine you are forwarding to.

For example:
My current IP address is 192.168.0.101
so I set my firewall to forward the FG ports to that machine

A week from now I go to host FG and my IP address is now 192.168.0.113. Now no one can connect to me because my router is forwarding all inbound FG traffic to 192.168.0.101. To fix this I have to go into my router and update my port forwarding to point to my current IP address (192.168.0.113)

[icedcrow]

Is there anyway we can get some decent documentation on the how-tos? I know our network has multiple computers hooked into it as well, and I'm not a network guy at all.

[unerwünscht]

I posted a basic Tutorial on how to configure a router HERE (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showpost.php?p=61553&postcount=1)

I will make more in depth how to guides over the next few days.

[Griogre]

The problem is it depends on your router. What you really need to do is give your machine a static local IP address if it does not already have one. That way your local machine's IP won't be dynamically allocated. And make sure your router has enough local IP addresses to distribute. IE don't set the router up for a range of just a couple of addresses don't be shy on numbers - give the local LAN double what you think you need or so.

[Morfedel]

My computer was the only one on here, and the "host" for the wireless router. Only my wife's laptop ever connected to it otherwise, and that was actually rare.

So, you are saying that regardless, the internal IP can change all on its own. If that's so... ugh, how irritating. I'll have to keep an eye on that in the future.

Actually... I just disconnected my wireless router and plugged in the modem directly. Funny thing is, the modem doesn't have firewall settings that I can access (or that I can tell anyway; I have access only to some very basic stuff.

And when I plugged in the modem directly, it somehow erased my dns suffix, had an auto ip address or something that showed up when I do an ipconfig that the help center for my isp said was pointing to a bad address....

And I couldnt access the internet at all after that. I found that very strange, when I could access it via the wireless, but not directly through the modem. A tech guy finally came out and had to pulled the battery for my modem out (something I didnt know it had) and then reset it again.

Then, finally, it all worked. Ugh.

[Griogre]

My computer was the only one on here, and the "host" for the wireless router. Only my wife's laptop ever connected to it otherwise, and that was actually rare.

So, you are saying that regardless, the internal IP can change all on its own. If that's so... ugh, how irritating. I'll have to keep an eye on that in the future.

Yes. This is actually considered to be a feature because it allows you to have more computers on your network than you have addresses (something very useful for a large LAN where a fair percent of computers may not be on all the time). Routers, despite their common use today in broadband connections were really designed to be be network gateways. This is why dynamic address assigning is the default setting but probably not the one you want for a computer you are going to use for a server on a Local LAN.

Dynamically allocated IP addresses are typically "leased" out for a fixed amount of time. The odds are pretty good that for a small amount of computers that regularly connect to a Local LAN they will have the same number "renewed." The caveat to this is that the router has more or at least the same number of local IPs available to assign as computers that connect to the LAN. It also helps if your lease time is longer rather than shorter.

Where dynamic number assignment changes is when you have a new computer connect and a lease has expired so the router assigns a number that use to be use by another computer or you have only a few local IPs available to be assigned and a friend brings over a laptop so the router is forced to assign a local IP number to it of a computer not currently on.

[Polyhedral]

I don't want to say you are wrong. But if you are in America your IP is on a lease and the minimum lease in the united states (thanks to the Digital Millenium Anti-Piracy Act) is 168 hours, which translates to 7 days. Most ISPs in the United States have switched to holding an IP lease for about 30 days, due to the fact that everyone is scared of the secret service busting down their door because some downloaded a movie.

Oh, I am more than happy to be shown to be wrong, because I learn something the process!

[unerwünscht]

Your weren't wrong, just misguided. Your information is technically correct. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that "Dynamic IP" as you described it is a thing of the past. The new "Dynamic IP" is what was previously called Soft Static. However I would be willing to put money on the line that things will change again, as new leadership comes into office in America. Some of the privacy issues that arise from not having a truly dynamic IP fall into a civil rights issue.

[Morfedel]

Yes. This is actually considered to be a feature because it allows you to have more computers on your network than you have addresses (something very useful for a large LAN where a fair percent of computers may not be on all the time). Routers, despite their common use today in broadband connections were really designed to be be network gateways. This is why dynamic address assigning is the default setting but probably not the one you want for a computer you are going to use for a server on a Local LAN.

Dynamically allocated IP addresses are typically "leased" out for a fixed amount of time. The odds are pretty good that for a small amount of computers that regularly connect to a Local LAN they will have the same number "renewed." The caveat to this is that the router has more or at least the same number of local IPs available to assign as computers that connect to the LAN. It also helps if your lease time is longer rather than shorter.

Where dynamic number assignment changes is when you have a new computer connect and a lease has expired so the router assigns a number that use to be use by another computer or you have only a few local IPs available to be assigned and a friend brings over a laptop so the router is forced to assign a local IP number to it of a computer not currently on.

I see. So then, what do I need to do before a game to make sure my ip is going to be all right so people can connect?

And does it matter that I'm now using my cable modem directly, vs the wireless router I was plugged into before? Because I have no access to any kind of port forwarding on this cable modem, but once we had everything running, people were finally able to connect yesterday.

[Tenian]

Personally, I would reconnect everything the way you had it originally. (i.e. internet comes into the modem, modem connects to router, router connects to PC)

On the day of the game (probably an hour or so before you want players to log in) I would do the following:

1) Start up your host machine
2) Identify it's IP address (the ipconfig command will do this for you).
3) Go into the setup for your router
4) Check the port forwarding for the FG2 port.
5) If this port is being forwarded to the address you got in step #2 you are done
6) If the port is being forwarded to a different address. Change the port to be forwarded to the address you got in step #2.

[devinnight]

If your modem lacks a basic firewall you'll want your router in there to act as a 1st line of defense, connecting directly to a modem leaves your computer wide open. Unless your computers firewall is set up well.

Also most internal dynamic IP's are assigned when the computer boots up, so the 1st machine to ask the router for an IP gets the 1st one on the list, say 100. The next computer to ask gets 101 and so on. If you are in the habit of shutting down your machine and another one then boot them up in the same order that you always do.

-D

[Griogre]

I see. So then, what do I need to do before a game to make sure my ip is going to be all right so people can connect?

On the router - what you really want to do to solve the problem premanently - is give the computer you host FG on a permanent static local IP address. Almost any modern router has this capability.

Typically you would give the FG computer the lowest local IP number and tell the router to dynamically generate the rest of the local IP numbers (and give yourself *plenty* of local IP numbers - its a bitch to track down a problem caused by too few a numbers in a few years). Then you would make sure port 1802 is forwarded to that local IP number. Once you do this until the router is reset - everything will work fine.

To do the steps to actually set this up you are going to need to read the router manual. You may also find this site useful: https://portforward.com/routers.htm It has most of the common routers listed.