A great big snag

[NineShadowEyes]

I've purchased 4 licenses of FGII, I've spent a bunch of hours figuring out the program, spent even more hours getting campaign info into the program, even did test games on my home network... and now I find the two external players can't connect. And I don't think they're going to.

I live in a housing development that shares an internet connection. I plug a computer into the main ethernet jack and I get an IP address. Normally, I have my CISCO router on that jack and all my computers running through it via a switch, but for purposes of testing I have my PC right into the jack so that it is part of the housing network. But the external users can't connect via alias.

Obviously, I don't have any sort of access to the router being used so I can't configure anything. Shouldn't the alias thing work anyway, though? I don't need port forwarding if I'm using an alias, right?

Well, it doesn't work, and like I said I don't think it's going to work since I don't have any access to the router.

Four licenses of FGII for online campaign: $70.
D&D books purchased specifically for this campaign: $165
Hours spent preparing online campaign: 48

Realizing it was all for nothing and you won't get to run this campaign at all: just !#@$ing priceless.

[Griogre]

You might want to check out www.hamachi.cc I have not used the software, but several people here have reported success using it with FG. Basically, it sets up a VPN that allows you to treat everyone as if they are all on a local LAN. I believe the basic version is free.

[Sigurd]

Can you determine if the housing development is stopping ports and if so what ones?

Finding out whats going on with the networking would be the next logical step. If your bandwidth is too small or shared with everyone in your neighborhood the you might not like the connection even if you can establish it.


Sigurd

[Sorontar]

I'd be having a word with whoever is responsible for the network in the housing development to see exactly whats going on as they may well be blocking FG.

[NineShadowEyes]

Basically how this works is my entire row of houses (about 10) are on a subnet with a modem seperating us from the internet. I either plug in a computer or a router into a jack in my house and it gets an IP address on the housing subnet. I then either use that IP for one PC or it goes to the router.

What's the best option?

1. Opening ports on the housing firewall.
2. Port forwarding on the housing firewall to my house's IP address.
3. Getting a pass-thru and having an external IP assigned to my house?

Thx.

[Sigurd]

Assuming they will cooperate with you and your gaming (A big assumption).

Go to a site that reads your external/real IP address, ipchicken.com isn't the best but its the one I always remember .

That will be the email address that the alias is pointing to. Stop using the alias because it obscures things. You then have to try to get to the housing system router to set up a forwarding for FG.

Don't play around and try to get into the router without permission - its just way rude and will spoil your relations with the housing admin. Send them a letter.

If they won't help you (ya have to figure that their forwarding would make you the only possible FG DM in the housing block). You'll have to vpn the game with the help of an outside router.

Thats sort of the hamichi.cc\passthrough deal. Try that and see how it works.


Sigurd


FG isn't the biggest bandwidth consumer but you might consider that if you're quiet about it they are less likely to notice your consumption. Maybe the pass through from the outset is the better plan..

[NineShadowEyes]

Ok! Things aren't nearly as bad as I thought. I was just being whiney, apparently. The guy in charge of the networking came over to my place today and we had a chat. He's not an IT guy at all, just one of the builder management (they're still building so they're around) who just happened to get tagged with the responsibility, and I had him show me the utility closet where the cable modem and router reside and he explained how the wiring is done in all the houses. Turns out each row of houses is patched into two switches which are in turn patched into the router - one subnet per row. You don't need a router at all. Just plug in to any port and get an IP address. Duh! So that's one obstacle out the way. I can put my PIX away.

The next part is even better. So I was chatting with this guy and he tells me how they (the builders) aren't happy with how the existing four buildings are setup for internet access through Comcast and that they're going to do something different for the new buildings. It's pretty obvious to him by now that I do this sort of thing for a living so he asks me flat out if I'd be willing to talk to his boss about setting up the networks in the new buildings and redoing things in the current buildings. Not only that, but then he tells me that there are a few other folks in my row of houses who are having issues and if I can take care of them he'll give me the username/pwd to the router to troubleshoot it. Rent discounts were mentioned.

Now, suddenly, I have the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, with the possibility of upgrading my row's network. This should work out well.

The router is an SMC brand - SMC8013WG-CCR. I'm not familiar with SMC so I'll have to do some research a bit. What we did so far is give my PC a static IP out of the DHCP range and put it in the DMZ (only one IP is allowed to do that, though). That's a start.

[NineShadowEyes]

It's working. Simple port-forwarding did the trick (and I got out of the DMZ). Amazing what you can do when you have the admin userid and password.

[Sigurd]

Good man, Human networking is the first most important networking

Sigrud

[richvalle]

Wohoo! Congrats. Nice to know all that work you did wasn't for nought.

rv