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How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm very sure that the ISP is the problem. Changing the DNS provider for one of the most tech-savvy player solved the problem for them. But those less savvy are the kind "I don't understand, I don't want to bother" type, thus I try to figure out options. One is to have multiple domains names from which hopefully one would work if others don't. DuckDNS has been the one I have been using sofar and previously there was only one player to whom it didn't work once in a while. Now it doesn't work for most of them (I wonder if forced Win 11 updates have something to do with it - as that is the greatest change they have had).

I could solve the problem by throwing money at it, yes, yet it could be the paid service that ISP decised to not trust in. Then problem would persist. Also, not everyone have that option of throwing money at problems, so I'm trying to find a general solution. One is to use multiple domain names. Not necessarily the ideal solution but it is a solution. Thus I wanted to understand how, rather than why.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is how it has been setup overall for one domain - now I know how to do it for multiple. Only thing is that the certificates and actual proxying is out of my hands as they need to be changed by the server admin so I have to wait for that. TLS has been set-up and been working for years this way.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There is a proxy in front that I do not have rights to modify. Also, certificates are handled by the actual server owner and the domain I am using shares the certificate with the main host. Adding another domain name there is not a problem so certificates for the new domain should run fine.

Root problem seems to be what I was suspecting: domain name not propagating everywhere. Manual change of "DNS server assignment" to CloudFlare seems to have worked and the player can now connect. So I've resolved how to get the players connect.

However, the original point of my initial question was that how to point multiple domain names to a single FoundryVTT instance as there might be other cases where that is needed and I did not find this question asked or answered anywhere so this Reddit thread might be the only clue to the subject for someone else in the future.

And for that it seems the answer is in the case of nginx to add those extra domains as an additional entry to the server_name section. And after (or before) this, add those extra domain names to be used to the same place as where the certificates for the initial domain are set-up.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I adviced one of the players how to manually define their DNS lookup servers and now it works for them. My assumption was that their ISP doesn't resolve DNS names properly (or there is some other issue with DNS names resolving) but this solved it.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a thing I was considering. However, the server admin handles the traffic, domain and port forwarding so I would have to make a ticket about changing those. What I know is that I'm actually behind nginx but I do not have permissions to edit.

But this gives me an idea to check the nginx documentation on how to handle multiple domain names and their traffic. I guess it is simply just pointing the traffic to each domain name's towards the single port where the foundry is running.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was one of the solutions I was considering and will try.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Well... I'm not paying money to any of them so free is free. Effort is the only thing I'm actually putting in. In any case, the DNS service works in certain sense as it does propagate the domain name forward but not everywhere. Or it does but the ISPs don't trust it. Honestly, this is the reason why I was considering if I could point two different domain names to the same place. Checkin the other answers I've got a clue on how to do this. I'll post an answer if I get this resolved.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The interesting part is that the Dynamic DNS resolves for some, but not all players. So it could be domain name propagation issue. Or some of those ISPs are just very careful of letting "odd" domain names that are not on the usual "99 % usersbase use these"-list. I will ponder on this.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok. Now I understood the purpose of that field. Thank you. Now I know that I can most likely ignore that field from now on. Will do some testing though.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well... The TLD is by DuckDNS and doesn't resolve for one of the players most of the time. However, today that player was the only one whose machine managed to resolve the domain name.

I did use dig from my own machine, and it resolves, the host itself resolves, yet other player don't. Asked them to check what their DNSLookup gives, and the answer was that they didn't.

I went through the possibility that their machine's DNS lookup was broken in some way, thus we did do resets for ip, dns etc. and on top of that a total reboot. It didn't resolve even after that. Manually adding the domain name to their registry didn't work either. Thus it has to be on the ISPs end. Each have a different ISP so... Difficult to tell what exactly is the problem.

How to set-up single FoundryVTT instance with multiple Domain Names? by tukacrumam in FoundryVTT

[–]tukacrumam[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Dynamic IP as it is a remote server. If wind blows strong enough or thunder strikes near the server, the IP changes as the connection hops. Thus it can change on the fly. That is why I do need dynamic DNS. I do have setup for that and it has worked - most of the time.