BrashFink's Port Forwarding Guide...

Some intro info...
This is a basic tutorial on how to setup Port Forwarding behind a personal router, or any time you are using private IP addresses. This post will occasionally update to repair errors I have made, and perhaps add additional troubleshooting steps or information on various router brands. This guide is written from a perspective that the person might know a bit about the Internet, but not have a great deal of knowledge as to how or why some things work exactly. So some of you that are more knowledgeable and just do not understand a few key points, might need to wade through the muck a bit. Sorry trying to cover several bases here.

Lets start with some basic information on what this whole Port Forwarding business means...

How do you find if you have a Private IP? All private IPs fall in the following ranges...
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
If your address does not fall within here... say for example it is 68.35.X.X (a ComCast IP address), you have a Public IP address and shouldn't need to monkey with any of this nonsense.

If it doesn't work and you have a Public IP...
...either your AV/Security/Firewall software is doing something to prevent the data from leaving your computer...
...or whatever Internet provider you are using is doing something goofy with the data before it leaves their network (usually due to classifying data for traffic shaping to keep torrents from commandeering all the available bandwidth) and it is getting dropped or misclassified...
...or you have a Virus (contrats if it is the last one!).

Unfortunately, Port Forwarding will not solve any of these problems. Man, if I had a dollar for every customer that has called in at work saying "my software's tech support says you need to forward these ports!" Oh really? we give you a public IP, how exactly do they think that is going to help? :roll: ANYWAY...

If you have a Private IP and you DO NOT have your own router, this means that whatever ISP you are using (usually smaller companies or perhaps something controlled by an apartment building you live in) has you behind a NAT on a private network. This more or less means that you are unfortunately at their mercy. You will have to contact who is responsible, usually some helpful tech support rep (can't tell what I do for a living yet can you?) and you can then find out what their policy is on such things. Usually (especially if you pay for it, or pay them rent) they will help you. The place I work for has some places that use Private IPs, and after doing a little research on the product in question (this case being d20Pro) and looking over what it does and such, we open the port for them.

Normally, when you are using a home router, it will have a Public IP given to it by your Internet Service Provider (like a cable company -- and GOD HELP YOU if you are behind yet ANOTHER Private IP, which is also a horrid possibility. See above and GOOD LUCK). When your computer (or any other device) attaches to the router... the router then gives the computer a Private IP address and then handles all traffic for all devices wanting to get to the Internet. Private IP addresses are not able to directly communicate with other devices across Internet and this prevents software like d20Pro DM Client from being able to connect to the Players on the other end of the interwebz. This is where Port Forwarding comes in. Its the the way you tell your router which of the devices this information coming in is for.

Well, lets get on with it...
Start the d20Pro software. Make sure you note the port listed. For this guide, we will keep with the default of 10101. At this point, putting in a password is a good idea to keep any unwanted visitors out...


Once in the software, click the d20Pro Menu (circle with the d20 in it) and choose Options...


Choose the tab down at the bottom called Judge...


Once on this tab, choose What is My IP Address...


This window has information that you should record because you will need it later. The top address (blurred for security reasons) is the address on your router, your Public IP address. The bottom address is the Private IP Address (Local IP - same thing) of your computer (in my case, 192.168.1.101). One thing that should be noted, telling people (other than the people you intend to play with) the Public IP Address is not a very good idea. These are what hackers use to try to get into networks (and hence, why I have blurred mine out)...


Next you will need to log into your router. This is usually done by opening a web browser and typing the Private IP Address of the router (not the Public one)... YES, the router has 2 IP addresses, one on your private network and one on the Internet (the Public IP Address we recorded earlier). This is how a router... does its job of routing traffic back and for to the Internet for the devices attached to it. This Private IP Address can vary from brand to brand of router, but it usually is something like 192.168.1.1 -- Check the manual that came with your router to know for certain. If you have lost the manual, most manufatures have PDFs avalable for download on thier websites.

Configuring the Router...
I am not going to comment on what routers suck, but some of them seem to have interfaces designed to confuse people on PURPOSE. This is a screenshot of my router made by Linksys/Cisco. This router is SIMPLE to setup and has great menus. I got Port Forwarding setup on the 1st try. That said, I am not going to badmouth anyone else, just state I like this router. As Stan Lee says, Nuff Said...

This is the main page. On this router, Port Forwarding is under the section labeled Applications & Gaming...


Once on the Applications & Gaming tab, the default tab that is open is called Port Range Forward. This is the tab we want.

In the first box is labeled Application (A). Here you simply need to put something that reminds you what your forwarded the port for. The easiest thing to do is just label it as d20Pro.

The next 2 boxes are listed as Start and End (B). This is the range of ports you want to open. In our case, we are opening only one port, so we put the same number in both boxes and we kept the default of 10101.

A bit about Protocol... I left mine as Both. I read on the forums here somewhere that it really only needs to be TCP. The other one (UDP) is basically a less secure, older and simpler version of TCP. I am not really worried about it. The likelihood of someone coming across my IP and the Port I use (I do not use the default), when I have it open (only when playing) is pretty slim. Besides if someone did do something, I would probably more entertained and curious what they did exactly versus thinking some Greek tragedy had occurred (whatever... format C: rinse, repeat). Anyway, there you have it.

Lastly, we need to tell it where to forward to, which is the Private IP Address of our computer (and where the software looking for the port is - d20Pro). We put it under the section IP Address (C). In our example this was 192.168.1.101.

One other thing you might want to keep in mind, some routers (like this one) have a silly little box labeled as Enable. Obviously if this is not checked... Port Forwarding is off and will not work. It actually kind of useful because you can have it all setup and just use this button to enable and disable it.


After this all done, be sure you click Save (usually at the bottom). There, everything is all setup and ready to go.

Player Client Connecting...
When your players connect, have them put in your Public IP Address (from your router - again, I have blurred mine). This is the address the players can see across the Internet (they have no way to see the Private IP Address). Of course, they also need to put in the same Port you chose and Password.

That is it. The player should be logged in.


How it works... more or less...
How this all works is basically... the players client forwards their game data to the IP address of your router from across the Internet... the router normally would have no idea what this is for but NOW the data says "hey, this stuff is supposed to goto port 10101"... the router goes "Ah okay... everything that is requesting that port goes to this IP address" which is your computer... where the d20Pro DM Client is sitting, waiting for them with open arms. Pretty snazzy, huh?

A small bit about playing on the same network...
Port Forwarding is not necessary at all since neither of you are leaving the local network. All the player needs to do is put the Local IP Address of your computer (in our example 192.168.1.101) and skip the Public IP all together. I am pretty sure the Port being there is more or less pointless in this situation, but wont mess with anything anyway... so it just sits there. I suppose one could test this by comically changing each client to different ports... but who cares enough to bother. Not me!

A small bit about using 2 clients on the same machine...
You may have noticed if you have attempted it, that if you open the client twice on the same machine (perhaps one as DM and one as Player) to test things... that it puts some ODD address in there... perhaps 127.0.0.1? This address is the address of the Local Host. What does this all mean? More or less, think of it this way, this is the address where any machine can look at itself (like a network version of looking in a mirror). It means "do not go anywhere, what you are trying to find is right here". The clever developers of the software have put something in that notices that you are opening it twice. So basically if you are trying to opening twice on the same machine to test or if you have a dual monitor setup for your players in a face to face session, you do not have to put in anything, just leave it as 127.0.0.1

If you still cannot connect...
If it worked before, and now does not when trying to use it, go back and check your Private IP Address. By default, computers are set to use Dynamic DHCP. Every so often the router reassigns a new address to devices. Usually it will get the same one, but it is possible that it switched (even more so if there are several things on your network). You can setup Static IP Addresses on your network if you want, (Addresses that do not change) but that is probably more trouble than it is worth. I solve this simply by checking my address each time I get into d20Pro and see if it changed. Since I login to my router to enable the Forwarded Port anyway each time I play, it is simple for me to change the IP while I am in there enabling it.

If you are setting it up for the first time and it is not working, the first thing you will want to do is COMPLETELY disable whatever Anti-Virus/Security/Firewall software you are running. Usually this is done by Right Clicking on its icon in the SysTray (the funny bar with the icons down by the clock). While this is not really how you want to leave your Security software everytime you play, if it works when the software is totally disabled... you will know that the security software is the problem. Another way to test this is to boot your computer in SafeMode with Networking. This will disable almost all Security software. I am not sure if d20Pro will start in SafeMode but there are other ways to test also (I will cross this bridge perhaps in a later revision). If it connects this way... again it points out the problem is the Security software. You will need to contact them, check their forums for info... or switch your software. There are a few out there (and again, I am not going to name any names), that are SO protective they are intrusive... if not down right a complete pain. I personally use Kaspersky and have been extremely pleased with it. It can be set to a smart mode that almost never messes with you.

Another thing to check is to make sure the in-game Utility is giving you the correct IP addresses. This should not normally happen, but there are a few anomalous situations that could cause it (I found one running a Linux VirtualBox on my machine, but that is a whole other story all together). You can check your Private IP Address several ways... at a Command Prompt you can use the command IPconfig /all or in can also be found in the Networking Control Panel. Each of these is a little different depending on the version of Windows (not to mention Mac and Linux, which are totally different). I might add some more info about this to the Guide later. The easiest way to find your Public IP Address is to just goto IPchicken. It will just flat out tell it to you. Go ahead... click it!

Still having problem? Feel free to post here. I will check back from time to time and see if I can help. Two things are a MUST though for me to assist at all... 1) What brand and model of router you are using... 2) what Brand and Version of security software.

If it works... congrats... enjoy yourself and do a small dance... a dance of Goblin killing!


PS -- If anyone sees any typos (I am sure there are still SEVERAL! It is 3am now, I have been working on this a little before midnight... and I am STILL finding errors!) Please feel free to DROP ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know. Please do not post the errors in this thread. Leave it free for people asking questions. Thanks!

 

Hey Dan, cool meeting you at Gencon this year!

Hey, if you have questions, I rarely monitor this tread, just send me a Private Message if you have questions.

Thanks all!