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

[Lo Zeno]

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.

That's good to know, I'll keep that in mind

[Lo Zeno]

So, it happened again tonight.
This time it was the ONLY player that had not had this issue the other times. Same error: "The host is running an unauthorized copy"
This time it was a player connecting from the UK. Attempted twice to connect, failed, closed, waited a minute and restarted FGU, attempted three times, failed, closed waited and restarted FGU again, finally managed to connect.
Luckily, this time they managed to grab the logs and send them to me, I've attached them to this post.

It's starting to become pretty annoying since it happens every bloody week and sometimes requires multiple restarts of FGU to get past the "host is running an unauthorized copy" error.

[Moon Wizard]

I'm at a bit of a loss on this one.

* The only reason the GM machine would affect this is if the outgoing initial connection response got truncated (due to network settings in GM environment) which would make the players fail whenever that happened.
* For the players, it's a basic HTTPS request to the server to verify the license hash is valid. Nothing crazy. I would expect if it was player network settings that the same people would have the issue each week; but your experience is that it is different people each week, which leads back to GM environment.

Can you think of anything on the GM side in security software, router settings or ISP settings that would throttle or filter communications? All it takes is for one byte to be changed to invalidate the check. Perhaps something is thinking that the license hash is some sort of string that should be filtered, and gets caught some times?

Regards,
JPG

[Moon Wizard]

Talking with Doug, we had a situation a long time ago where a license key containing the letter F**K kept getting issues. We're thinking that either the license key or the hash is possibly triggering an issue.

We've emailed you a replacement license key to hopefully see if that resolves the issue. Please let us know if you do not get the key in your email associated with your FG account.

Regards,
JPG

[Lo Zeno]

Can you think of anything on the GM side in security software, router settings or ISP settings that would throttle or filter communications? All it takes is for one byte to be changed to invalidate the check. Perhaps something is thinking that the license hash is some sort of string that should be filtered, and gets caught some times?

I can list here what I checked and verified, so you guys can give me suggestions on other steps I can take:
For context, I run FGU on a Windows 11 PC.
I have an antivirus (Malwarebytes) but I disable it when I run the game as in the past it has interfered with FGU connections. Windows Firewall doesn't show any rule that blocks FGU as an application to connect, or that block outgoing UDP traffic, or TCP traffic, out anything on port 1802.
The PC is wired to the main router. My router is a TP-Link Deco series, for mesh WiFi, but the desktop pc is connected to the main one so no WiFi mesh in the middle. My router settings have no special firewall rules that could block UDP or TCP traffic going out or port 1802 on my computer; there's address reservation to give my PC a static internal IP ( for other software I have on this pc).
I've been with my ISP for close to 8 years, the only thing they have changed in the years is my connection speed and the last time they increased it was May last year; they do have an "adult traffic filter" option that blocks certain connections (meant to block adult websites and other non-child friendly traffic) but I opted out of that when I signed up. TO MY KNOWLEDGE, they haven't made any change to my connection settings at least for the last 24 months (but not having direct access to their systems I can only speak for what my connection portal shows), and definitely not in the last month and a half.

Talking with Doug, we had a situation a long time ago where a license key containing the letter F**K kept getting issues. We're thinking that either the license key or the hash is possibly triggering an issue.

We've emailed you a replacement license key to hopefully see if that resolves the issue. Please let us know if you do not get the key in your email associated with your FG account.

I received the key in my email, I'll test it out during the week and report back. Cheers.

[Moon Wizard]

Let us know if the updated key works; and I would definitely recheck your ISP settings in your account.

Regards,
JPG

[Lo Zeno]

I made some quick connection tests with my players and so far we haven't seen the problem pop up. But I could only test with one or two players at a time, a better test will be next week in our scheduled game when I'll have everyone connect, I think.

Yeah, I re-checked the ISP settings on my account portal several times - the only thing that could block traffic is the adult filter, but it's disabled. I mean, I can access PornHub and I can send POST requests to a few questionable APIs containing swear words, so yeah it's definitely disabled.

[Lo Zeno]

I'm running a new session with all the players right now, as I type, and everyone has connected without a hitch this time. So that's encouraging!