Can't Connect

[Garthis]

I have tried every possible help to get FG to connect. I have done all the port forwarding. I have turned off my PCs firewall and have made sure that no other program is using the same port. I still can't get FG to show a successful connection or get any of my players to connect. I am beginning to get a bit perturbed because I bought three copies and a full license for all my players because we live in different states. I am running windows 7 home premium, with comcast cable connection.

P.S. I just checked and was able to run it on my laptop which is running vista but I really would like to play it on my Desktop

[Griogre]

Cutting off your firewall has no effect on your port settings. You must open port 1802 on both your router or cable modem and your software firewall. You must port forward 1802 to the local IP address to be able to host. You should make your local IP static so the host computer always gets the same local IP so port forwarding will not be broken by the DNS server deciding to give the host computer a different local IP address.

While it can be frustrating to set this up the first time, it is *very* rare that it can't be done if you are presistent. If you tell us what router you have we could give you better help. Bear in mind you can only host on one computer without changing the port forwarding on the router. If you set up you laptop to host then you will need to change the port forward to your desktop's local IP, otherwise the data is being sent to your laptop's local IP when you are trying to host on your desktop.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Hey Garthis,

Keep trying and hang in there. It took me some time to get it worked out on my network but once I got information specifically for my router it was no problem. Like Griogre said, if you can provide the type pf router you are using, someone on these forums can probably help you out.

[Garthis]

I have a netgear router and I did all the port forwarding for both hardware and softwhere on my desktop wich is why it was weird that it started working on my laptop. I still don't understand how that happend, and any help on making my IP static would help

[Griogre]

If you were hosting on the local network with the Labtop you wouldn't need to port forward.

[Garthis]

I know but unfortunately I am running vista on my laptop and that causes a load of other issues not to mention my desktop has more... well everything and will allow me to run FG on one monitor while using cretin books on the other (I am running a Worlds Largest Dungeon Campaign and use the PDF since my dogs recently decided to use my book as a chew toy -.-). I recently called my service provider which also supplies my router (Comcast) and they said that my residential router is incapable of setting up a static IP. This doesn't make any sense to me since my laptop seems to connect fine and I know I messed with the settings on the router to set it up with another program a while ago when my desktop was broken. Maybe it has more to do with Windows 7 then it has to do with the static IP.

[Griogre]

Hmm. If you have a netgear router you should be able to set up a *local* static IP address. I wonder if the Tech support guy thought you wanted a static external IP address?

[SLB]

Hi Garthis,

It really sounds like you set up your router to point to the laptop. Here is a little bit of information about IPs, hopefully this will help. My apologies if this is too basic, I just want to make sure all the bases are covered. Unfortunately I don't know much about Windows 7 so I can only give specifics with respect to XP.

Since you have more than one computer connecting to your router, your router has to assign each of them an IP address. This is different from the IP your service provider sets up. Comcast will assign the router an IP address and the router will give each of your computers an IP address. Likely each of your computers will have an IP like this:

Laptop: 192.168.1.10
Desktop: 192.168.1.11

This allows the router to talk to each of the two computers without getting confused. When you opened the ports in your router it would very likely have asked you to identify the IP address which traffic on that port should be pointed to. If you set up a static item on your laptop in the past I suspect you set up the new ports by comparing to the existing ports - and it appears you pointed it to the IP of your laptop.

To find out the IP address of your desktop computer do the following (this is how I do it on XP, this may be different for Windows 7):

1. from the start menu, click RUN
2. In the run box which pops up type in cmd
3. In the black DOS window which pops up type ipconfig

In that window you should see a little bit of information - one of the pieces of information will say IP address, likely to be 192.168.1. something. That's the IP address you want your port forwarding to point at. You will also want to tell the router to always assign that IP address to your desktop. Write down the other information also (Subnet Mask, likely 255.255.255.0 and Default Gateway, likely 192.168.1.1)

To set your static IP will likely be different again for Windows 7 - for XP I do it like this:

1. Right click on Network Places
2. Choose Properties
3. Right click on local area connection in that window - this is a bit tricky if you have multiple options.
4. Select the item called Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
5. Click the properties button

At this point you should be able to do what you need. Select the option to Use the following IP address, and then fill in the three fields with the information you wrote down from the ipconfig earlier. Now you are mostly there!

Last thing to do is to get back into your router and make sure that the configuration for port 1802 is pointing to the IP of your desktop. I am afraid that I know nothing about your router so I'll have to leave you on your own to sort that out.

My apologies if this is too basic and doesn't meet your requirements. Hopefully you'll be able to sort all this out and get playing!

[Garthis]

OK that was a total catastrophe. I finally found where to enter in and change my IP to a static one and did everything as I was suppose to. After I had a static IP i lost internet connection to literally everything except skype. I think I will give up on the static IP thing and work on something one of my players suggested. I never had a problem connecting on any computer when it was a LAN connection. (tested it on LAN when I first bought the program) Is there some way I could trick FG into playing as if it was a LAN over Hamachi.

[Griogre]

That is what effectively Hamachi does - create a local Virtual Private Network at the cost of some additional network overhead. If you don't use a VPN then you are going to have to get your router configured.

If you don't have more than a couple of computers on your local network, I would not worry about having a local static IP if I were you. Get everything else set up. What is actual Model number of your router? Is should be on the bottom or back.