Players disconnect due to error "The host is running an unauthorized copy"

[Lo Zeno]

This has happened for the last two weeks with the same group of people. Some players connect right away to the game that I host, others attempt to connect but the connection fails with the error message "The host is running an unauthorized copy of Fantasy Grounds" - in case there's a doubt, I have a legit Ultimate license. Usually all it takes for them is to close FGU completely, reopen it, reattempt to connect and things work, except today for one of them this wasn't enough and it took her four attempts before she managed to connect to the game.

Normally I'd start checking if they changed anything in their network setup (router, firewall, ISP etc.), but the three that had connection issues today are not the same people who had issues last week; moreover, some of them connect from the USA, some from the UK, one from Italy.
I considered if it was MY network or installation the issue, but the fact that half of the players, each time, managed to connect without issues seems to rule that out (also, as I said, my license is legit).

Two of the three players who had issues connecting today also experienced a couple of instances in which their connection was forcibly terminated, at the same time. The two players connected from the same country, but from two distant parts of said country and using two different ISPs, yet they got disconnected at the same moment - while the other three players weren't.

In the end it was just a hiccup as everyone eventually managed to reconnect and we ran our session, but the interruptions were very weird.
I have attached my (host) logs, but I haven't been able to get the logs from the affected players.

[Moon Wizard]

The authorization check is done by the individual clients; not the GM machine. So, the GM machine logs will not provide any information.

When a client connects to a licenses, it does a quick check to the fantasygrounds.com server to verify that the license is valid. Given that it works most of the time, it sound like something is causing that outgoing request on the user's machine to be blocked or disconnected prematurely.

I'll ask Doug to double-check that there aren't any reasons the CDN for the web site would interfere with that. Otherwise, I would assume it's something specific to the ISP or security settings that is blocking/closing the connections.

Regards,
JPG

[Moon Wizard]

We checked the server settings; and there's no server logs showing any issues and we verified that the caching servers do not cache those requests.

So, it looks like something is interfering with the connection between the user's having the issue and the FG servers in the US. For those users, you can check their router settings or ISP account settings to make sure there is no filtering, throttling, or security filters potentially blocking. It could potentially be a noisy connection if running wifi connection with a weaker signal.

Regards,
JPG

[Lo Zeno]

I've already arranged to help them check their settings and ISP settings, and instructed everyone on providing me their logs should this happen again in the next session so I can forward it here; but as I said, the fact that last week it happened to certain players, and this week it happened to DIFFERENT players (while the ones that had issues last week didn't have any problem this time) who don't even share the same geographical location makes the chances that it's something on their ISP configuration approximately zero.
Most of them are not technical enough to even understand how to get to the router configuration, but I told them to verify that no family member has messed with their network.
One of those who had issues last week was connected with an ethernet cable to a full-fibre connection, so that rules out many instances of noisy connections or weak signal.

A total of six people with five different ISPs, in three different countries, experienced the same error, three in one day and three in a different one, one user on a particularly stable network type, and the error insinuated it was a host license problem - you can see how I'm skeptical that something will turn up by looking at their routers or ISPs.

[Lo Zeno]

[disregard, double posted]

[Moon Wizard]

The license check runs from the player machine; not the GM machine. So, unless something on the GM side is messing with the outgoing data going to the players, it seems unlikely to be a GM side issue.

I agree that given that it was different sets that it is something related to new setting changes. I'm also not getting any other reports from other users at this time, which would point towards something at our ISP/servers.

So, that leaves issues between ISPs (i.e. random-ness of Internet connectivity across countries), which are usually ephemeral or caused by DDoS or other Internet "weather".

Just to be sure, I looked up your license, and it should end with "M62".

Regards,
JPG

[Lo Zeno]

Just to be sure, I looked up your license, and it should end with "M62".

Yup, that checks out

[Zacchaeus]

This sometimes happens (it happened to one of my players last Sunday - but he runs a mac so that's always 'special'). Generally if the player completely closes down Fantasy Grounds and tries again it'll work. Might also need to reboot their computer.

[Lo Zeno]

Yeah, that's how we "solved" it for last week's session - close and reopen FGU for those affected.
What prompted me to post here this week is because this last session one player had to close-and-reopen multiple times (four) before it worked, and two of the affected players saw their connections terminated during play at the same time, and when they attempted reconnection they saw the error again.

Hopefully if it happens again I'll at least have the players' logs this time, or some other clue to shed light on why it happens.

[LordEntrails]

When they close and re-launch, make sure they give it some time for the licenses to time out. I think this is 1-2 minutes. If you re-launch before the timeout, you'll still get the error.