Fantasy Grounds Message Boards FAQ

Fantasy grounds uses the TCP protocol on port 1802 for both originating (players) and listening (host/GM) network connections. This settings can be overriden using the "-p####" flag on the command line (or shortcut) when launching Fantasy Grounds.

Fantasy Grounds relies on all traffic passing through a single network connection. The connection will typically be assigned an internal IP address within your network and your router will need to be configured to route all 1802 port traffic received at your router to this IP address. If you have a wired and a wireless connection that are both active, we recommend turning off your wireless connection while hosting a game and also when you first configure your router settings.

Note: When performing any network connection troubleshooting, make sure that you are running Fantasy Grounds while hosting a live or demo game before checking network connectivity.

Fantasy Grounds requires port 1802 to be open from the Internet to the machine hosting your game.

Each network is unique, and there can be one or more firewalls, routers or modems on your network which can impact the availability of that port to your hosting machine. Please check each of these sections when troubleshooting connection issues

Internet

Go to the Open Port Check Tool at CanYouSeeMe.org. Type 1802 in the Port field, and click the Check button. After a few seconds, the site will tell you whether that port is open from the Internet to your internal network.

Local Network

Each house typically has a cable/DSL modem which controls access from your local network to the Internet. Also, each house usually has a router to provide more than one network connection, and additional security for your local network. In some cases, the modem and the router are the same piece of hardware.

Since your connection to the Internet only gives you a single public IP address, each port from the Internet can only be forwarded to a single computer on your local network.

Fantasy Grounds will attempt to automatically set up your router to send port 1802 traffic to the machine you are hosting on, using the UPnP protocol. However, UPnP is not supported by all routers, and can be disabled.

Please check the manuals for both your modem and router on how to access the configuration settings, and verify that port 1802 is not blocked and that UPnP is enabled.

Additionally, forwarding a network port to a single machine on your local network can be manually configured on your router. Please check your manual for how to configure port forwarding. You will need the local IP address of your machine (available on the FG launcher screen).

If you do not have the manual for your modem or router, a great resource for instructions is www.portforward.com - it has detailed instructions to set up port forwarding for a huge number of different routers: first select your router model on the Routers section and then click "Default Guide" near the top of the following page for detailed instructions.

Operating System

Windows Firewall and other third-party security products can also block access to the network, specific ports or specific applications. Please check the settings on each third-party security product to check that network access for Fantasy Grounds or port 1802 is not being blocked.

Windows Firewall can be configured via the Windows Settings or Control Panel. Other security product settings will need to be checked using the correct utility for their product. Usually, there is a tray icon in the lower right which provides access to settings.

Software

Start a second instance of Fantasy Grounds, and connect using "localhost" as the server IP/alias.

Nothing Works

If you are unable to determine what the issue is using one of the steps or tools mentioned above, please try posting on the House of Healing forum along with any information from the tests you have tried already.

Also, many members of our community have had great success using Hamachi as an alternative to configuring network ports.

There a few reasons why Fantasy Grounds might not start.

1. Fantasy Grounds requires at least Windows XP to run. If you are running an older version of Windows, Fantasy Grounds will not run.
2. Check to make sure that your display drivers are updated and support DirectX 9 or higher. You can check your settings using the DirectX diagnostic tool within windows.

If you are running a Mac or Linux operating system, please see the FAQ specific to that topic.