Force a different external ip.

[TrulyThomas]

Hello, I have been searching for about an hour or so about this, but couldn't find anything. I am using ngrok to create a port for me, and it creates a different ip for people to use, this works with Minecraft for an example, but not with fantasy grounds. I think this is because it is trying to use my external ip when it's not supposed to. Is there any way I can force a different external ip to be read?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Andraax]

Give the external IP to your players and tell them to put that into the "host" field. Or, setup a DNS entry pointing to your new IP address, and give the players that host name.

[LordEntrails]

Welcome to the forums

Hello, I have been searching for about an hour or so about this, but couldn't find anything. I am using ngrok to create a port for me, and it creates a different ip for people to use, this works with Minecraft for an example, but not with fantasy grounds.

Do you have ngrok up and running before you start FG? FG will grab your current IP address. Not sure which one though or if you can control which one it grabs. After you start ngrok, running a 'ipconfig -a' might help you figure it out.

I think this is because it is trying to use my external ip when it's not supposed to.

It? FG or ngrok or something else?

Is there any way I can force a different external ip to be read?

FG to use a specific IP? Not that I know of.

I've used PureVPN and Hamachi which both give me different external IP addresses, and as long as I have those started and connected before I start FG, they have worked just fine.

[TrulyThomas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-9Ku0vBeo& this is a video about using the software for Minecraft, I have used this a baseline for trying to make a fantasy grounds server. I have opened a 1802 port instead of the Minecraft one, but it doesn't seem to work. I have tried to just do the minecraft thing and that works, but I don't see why the FG shouldn't work.

[LordEntrails]

Sorry but I don't plan on watching a 5 minute video (I hate videos for instructional info).

First, why do you need ngrok or anything else? FG is setup to run as a server and in most cases doesn't need anything special. I suggest you try to run via FG best practices and not Minecraft ones. Have you tried running it just as is? Do you have firewall or IP issues? Have you gone through https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ions-Explained and figured out the 7 questions?

If you insist on your current path, if you start FG after ngrok, what IP address does FG give you? What is your ngrok IP? What does ipconfig show for those 2 IPs?

[TrulyThomas]

Well my issue is that my internet service provider is utilising fiber, so I have no modem to port forward therefore port forwarding is not an option. I can't utilize hamachi either, but maybe AWS or something then.

[Trenloe]

@TrulyThomas - as LordEntrail mentions, is there a specific reason for you using ngrok?

That said - you don't need to do anything special with regards to which IP address FG uses.

Fantasy Grounds will listen for connections on TCP port 1802 on *all* of the local IP addresses on the computer - usually the internal IP address (mine is 192.168.xx.yy) and localhost (127.0.0.1).

You can setup ngrok to port forward to localhost port 1802 (where FG will listen for connections) easily with the following command line: ngrok tcp 1802

For examples, I've just got ngrok running like this:



Note the port that ngrok will be using on the server 0.tcp.ngrok.io - in this case 17392, but this will change every time you run ngrok - it is dynamically assigned from the ngrok website. Each player needs to change their FG shortcut to use this port number before they start FG. For port 17392 they'd need to start FG with "C:\Program Files (x86)\Fantasy Grounds\FantasyGrounds.exe" -p17392 - note the bold port number, this needs to be changed by all the players to the current port ngrok is using on your FG computer.

For example, I've setup a shortcut on my player desktop that I can change each time I need to connect to the GM via ngrok:



I can then start the FG player instance and use the ngrok website addess of 0.tcp.ngrok.io for the FG host address:



You can check the player connection side from their <FG app data>\console.log file. For example, here is my test player connecting to port 17392:

[15.06.2019 19:20:52] Runtime Notice: Initializing DirectX
[15.06.2019 19:20:53] Runtime Notice: Initializing COM
[15.06.2019 19:20:53] Runtime Notice: Fantasy Grounds starting
[15.06.2019 19:20:58] Runtime Notice: User 'Tester' attempting connection to '0.tcp.ngrok.io:17392'
[15.06.2019 19:21:02] Network Notice: Client connected to host - 'Tester

And ngrok shows that I have a connection open ("opn"):



So, this work fine.

It's an interesting solution. But the fact that the ngrok Internet port used changes every time (unless there's something that can be done to hard code this against your ngrok account? Maybe by paying monthly for something other than the free acount?) makes this less useful as each player needs to change the dynamic port in their FG shortcut each time they connect. And if, for whatever reason, ngrok needs to be restarted in a session, all players will need to close FG, change the port in the shortcut and rejoin.

EDIT: it looks like you can reserve a port number on ngrok with the Pro ($8.25/month) ngrok user.

[Trenloe]

Well my issue is that my internet service provider is utilising fiber, so I have no modem to port forward therefore port forwarding is not an option.

Have you talked to you ISP to see what options might be available?

I can't utilize hamachi either...

What's the issue with Hamachi? It's essentially doing something similar (web brokered connections) but without the need to change the port each time - but all the players will need to install it and connect to your Hamachi network, less hassle than changing ports each time IMO.

[TrulyThomas]

Thanks a million that seems to be exactly what I need.