#Witch_King network
opaque magnet
@torn citrus I'll be your dutifully assigned service personnel for this evening, can you give me a quick rundown what the issue is and what you investigated so far?
torn citrus
Yessir. So I have a problem with the network invitation links for my world. It works locally but just not through the network. It says that my connection appears to be closed whenever I hover over it with my mouse. I contacted customer support in a few emails then after a bit of trouble shooting I ended up here. I took down literally all of my firewalls but it still won't work
opaque magnet
Alright, customer support is above my paygrade ;) , so we might have to rehash some things. I take it you have setup port forwarding rules on your router according to the Knowledge Base article https://foundryvtt.com/article/port-forwarding/ ?
lost walrus
Alright, customer support is above my paygrade ;) , so we might have to rehash s...
I'll give some quick background and share the two screenshots the user provided
torn citrus
I tried but I can't find the port forwarding tab in my router thing lol (Idon't know the exact name lol).
lost walrus
Alright, customer support is above my paygrade ;) , so we might have to rehash s...
User has two routers, computer is on a router with a 192.168.9.x , primary router is a 192.168.1.x- needs to either swap to primary router through direct connect or set secondary router to bridge mode, will need IP assigned by primary router and a DHCP reservation set
based on the fact @torn citrus had users connect previously, i don't think CGNAT is a risk, but it may be worth ruling it out officially
@opaque magnet let me know when you have those screenshots locally and i'll wipe them out so they aren't there for just anyone to see
opaque magnet
<@!150628255496404993> let me know when you have those screenshots locally and ...
Purge away
lost walrus
blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull throne
opaque magnet
@torn citrus run the following please and post the results, can be via DM if you wish
barren magnetBOT
torn citrus
How do you open the powershell window?
opaque magnet
Win+r and then powershell
opaque magnet
The first one needs a space before -UseBasicParsing, the second one you should let finish
torn citrus
Ah lol
toxic star
Ok, so your issue is that your ISP has you behind something called CG-NAT, that's those 100. and 10. IPs in the trace; it's basically extra layers of routers that you don't have access to for configuring port forwarding. What that means is that the next step for you is to call your ISP and ask them nicely to not put you behind CG-NAT and instead give you your own IP. Some ISPs just do it when asked, others want to charge money, and others refuse.
If they won't cooperate, your options are either to use VPN-like software (such as Hamachi, ZeroTier, ngrok, etc) to punch a connection through the CG-NAT or to use some form of external hosting.
External hosting can be a Foundry hosting partner (just show up with your license and credit card and they take care of the rest) or self-hosting on a VPS (like AWS or Oracle, which both have free options; but hosting that way does require following some linux command line tutorials) or having a friend with a friendlier ISP host Foundry for you.
torn citrus
Ok thanks! I have no clue what ISP is. How exactly do you call them?
opaque magnet
Internet Service Provider, usually they have a hotline
toxic star
In theory, most users don't actually use their public IP for anything, so CG-NAT saves ISPs a bit of money. So, sometimes people end up switched to be behind them when they're not looking, causing "all of the sudden it just stopped working" issues
torn citrus
Ah ok
lost walrus
Sorry that we were unable to resolve this; based on previous conversations we should have been able to if not for ISP interference. Hopefully they'll be able to put you on a publicly accessible IP, and if they can and do- drop back here and we'll be glad to help you get port forwarding engaged. If they can't, you can always consider hosting through one our hosting partners as well:
barren magnetBOT
torn citrus
Thanks again for your help! I'm about to call them so I hope it works lol
I just called them. They said that it would be 10 dollars a month. So what is the other way that I can do this? I know, I'm like the problem child lol. I did coding for a little while so you'd think I'd have at least a clue on what to do 😂
lost walrus
I just called them. They said that it would be 10 dollars a month. So what is th...
Coding and networking are two very different worlds of computing, don't beat yourself up about it.
toxic star
The best way to handle that is to host things outside of your home network (in theory there are a couple VPN-like options that can punch out from your local network, but they're kinda janky and it's better to avoid them if possible).
For hosting outside of your network, there are two options. One is to use a hosting partner that can handle everything for you for a few bucks a month, the other is to use AWS or Oracle's free linux server options and set up a Foundry instance on. Setting it up yourself is a bit more technical, but we do have step-by-step guides for that process if that's the route you want to take.
Another possible "hosting outside your network" option is to have a player host for you instead, if their ISP is a bit friendlier to hosting stuff.
lost walrus
To mxzf's solutions i'll add that If it's going to cost $10 a month, a paid hosting service is usually closer to $5 monthly, though "I'd rather not pay for hosting" is an absolutely acceptable response.
torn citrus
Ah ok. I'm a little short on money right now lol. So how could I set up the free AWS or oracles. And in your opinion which one is better out of the two?
opaque magnet
The AWS hosting for free is afaik limited to a year 🤔 Oracle advertises itself as always free, of course subject to Oracle's benevolence here
toxic star
AWS is more of an established solid service, Oracle offers no technical support from their end and is less of a well-oiled machine. But AWS is less limited in their offerings (especially the 1-year vs "forever"). So, it's a tradeoff
torn citrus
Ah. So if I go with oracle will I still have to do the port forwarding and everything with that?
opaque magnet
No, both of them provide proper "internet servers"
toxic star
No. Neither of those will require port forwarding at all. That's only really needed in home networks, not "real" servers like AWS/Oracle offer
torn citrus
Ah cool. Thank you guys so much for your time!
opaque magnet
Happy to help