Fantasy Grounds Lost Connection Host / Reconnect to Host - Multiple Times

[rbeard101]

I am either the GM or a Player, it doesn't really matter. My son is always a player and is connected to me via local network IP if I am GMing, Other players are connected to me or I to them via the internet. Hard wire should improve connection. I actually am pretty versed as I have a computer science degree and understand networking, computers, SW, etc.... The issues are either related to my Internet provider (unlikely since my son and other computers in the house don't experience these issues), OR the router has some setting or other strangeness associated with it. I've spent years in this configuration with no problems. We moved states in April and now have a different provider, new computer, and new router at that point. I did find that the new router was trying to "protect" me with DoS settings. I have disabled that, but still experiencing issues. At this point I'm about 80% certain it's the router and have decided to replace it with a different brand other then Netgear. The problems have been with a Netgear Nightkawk R8000p currently running the latest FW.

@jwrightFANTASYG please confirm some things:

1) You're the player, correct? And where is the GM when this happens? Are they on the same network or remote? If on the same network, are they on WiFi or hard wired like you?
2) If the GM is remote (out somewhere on the Internet) have you checked what I mentioned in post #2 and #6 above?

[damned]

Check you dont have any Wireless Isolation or similar activated on the router.

[lachancery]

I have been experiencing disconnects/reconnects for a couple months as well. I thought it was my wifi router, but after factory resetting it, and then replacing it with a Tap-Link mesh that gets me top quality link status all the time, I am moving my diagnosis to the computer. I have updated the network driver with the latest (uncertified) driver, to no avail.

The interesting part is that we’re using TeamSpeak for voice chat in parallel to FG. I never get any disconnections from TS while FG is experiencing these issues. If I’m the GM, every player gets disconnected from my host. If I’m playing, no other player has disconnections issues when I do.

I’m using Windows 10 64 bits on a Dell XPS 13 laptop. I did change laptop during winter, but I’m not sure if the timing of the issues coincide. Other than reinstalling my previous laptop, I’m running out of idea to diagnose this.

FG seems to be using a tcp socket for its player connections while TS seems to be using a udp socket for voice data, but I haven’t found any setting on my wifi router or in win10 adapter settings that called out a different handling between the two protocols... help?

EDIT: If it’s useful, there has been no pattern between the disconnects and network traffic. It’s happened during RP moments when nothing was happening in FG; during combats, both player & GM side. I don’t remember if disconnects have occurred during image sharing - there’s a latency between disconnect message in chat window and when networking effectively stopped.

EDIT 2: Since these issues started, I’ve playing PF1 exclusively, with 4 different GMs, plus hosting my own PF1 game. I didn’t experiment with a different ruleset (although I soon will; I’ve got my Visa out for PF2!)

[Andraax]

TCP is a full connection protocol (requires all packets to arrive to maintain state, it tries resending missing packets, but it can timeout before missing packets make it through). UDP is a "stateless" protocol - every packet contains everything needed and if packets are dropped, it can overcome the loss. This works fine with audio protocols, because you won't notice if a few microseconds of sound are dropped (the sound drivers will interpolate missing data), but it will wreak havoc with data, which requires all the bits to make it through.

[Willot]

This problem just seems to have the "feel" of a router sticking it's nose in where its not wanted. Check the Router's logs (if they are turned on) at the times of disconnection, see what shenanigans it was getting up to when the disconnection happened.

[Zacchaeus]

Frequent disconnects could be a symptom of too much memory being used. Check that when running the campaign that FG is not using memory in the region of 3Gb. If it is then that is the issue.

[Trenloe]

When playing I'd recommend running a continuous ping in the background - run ping -t 8.8.8.8 and leave the command window open in the background. When you have issues, quickly go to the command window running the ping and see if there have been any timeouts there - scroll back a bit to see if it happened a couple of minutes ago.

If everything looks OK (no timeouts or a series of very long responses), then it's probably not a general network issues, and something more to do with the router stopping traffic, FG having an issue, etc..

[devinlc]

My issue is probably not a network issue. How do I know? Because my son and I play FG on our respective laptops in the same house on the same Wifi, and I got disconnected 6 times last session and he only got disconnected once. Any ideas on what, specifically on my laptop, might be causing this?

[Trenloe]

My issue is probably not a network issue. How do I know? Because my son and I play FG on our respective laptops in the same house on the same Wifi, and I got disconnected 6 times last session and he only got disconnected once. Any ideas on what, specifically on my laptop, might be causing this?

I'd still recommend doing the constant ping that I suggest 2 posts up.

[LordEntrails]

My issue is probably not a network issue. How do I know? Because my son and I play FG on our respective laptops in the same house on the same Wifi, and I got disconnected 6 times last session and he only got disconnected once. Any ideas on what, specifically on my laptop, might be causing this?

Do the ping, also get a "wifi analyzer" app for you phone and see if you should have your router on a different channel.
Then check the drivers for your network card.

After that it depends on what hardware and software your computer uses. No single solution.
For instance, you might be able to go into Device Manager and see if their are options that apply or are different between your two laptops. Or you might have packet protection or power settings that automatically put your network card to sleep.
You might have 'Intel Pro Set Wireless Tools' you can run diagnostics with or view statistics (but no settings in that one I'm aware of that would help).

Just make sure you record any changes you make, so that you can put them back if they do not help.