So, I'm running Win10Pro 64-bit. All Fallout 4 firewall rules are enabled and I've even added specific rules for incoming AND outgoing TCP 27000 and UDP 28000. I've disabled my Norton AV. I've also tried disabling the firewall completely on the PC AND on my router (router was set to low settings initially anyways, which mean no port blocking).

I start up Fallout 4. Check that Pipboy App is enabled, which it is.

I start up my HTC Sensation 4G and the Pipboy App. The Pipboy app loads, goes straight into what I want to connect to (PC, PS4, XBO).

I select PC.

It searches and says: No devices found.

I used Wireshark on my PC NIC interface and did a port scan:

tcp.port == 27000 or udp.port == 28000

Every time I do a search for PC using the app on the phone, it shows up on Wireshark like this:

Source 192.168.0.17 (my HTC Sensation via wifi)

Destination: 255.255.255.255

Source Port: 41291

Destination Port: 28000

In the data section it shows up as:

cmd:autodiscover

Then the response by my PC:

Source: 192.168.0.2 (my PC)

Destination: 192.168.0.17

Source Port: 28000

Dest Port: 43236

Data section:

IsBusy:false
MachineType:PC

Yet, I get no response from the phone that it gets the message. What's going on here?

Also, I checked the Bethsupport knowledgebase and it says there should be an options menu in the App... nope. My app doesn't have options.

Anyone have any ideas?

Anything on this? Seems I'm not the only one having problems with this. Reddit is covered with people experiencing problems.

did you make sure the rules are for fallout4.exe and not the launcher? the game puts rules for the launcher but not for the regular exe.

create a single inbound rule for all ports.

They are in there. There's 4 rules under Inbound. Fallout.exe and the Launcher both have a Private and Public rule that is wide open basically.

I added my own under Incoming and Outbound. One each for TCP 27000 and UDP 28000.

I don't think creating one rule vs having several makes a difference at this point.

Because my PC sends a unicast message back to the phone's IP address I don't think it's the firewall. That's ruled out at this point. I think it either has to be the router blocking something (even though it's wide open) or the android version of the app has a problem with Win 10?

I think having a better understanding of what is supposed to happen internally would really help in troubleshooting this.

I've got an issue where it keeps getting connection errors. I can get it started but after a few seconds it drops out with an error.

Doing a retry sometimes works but it still then drops out after a short time.

I'm seeing this on two devices- my mobile and an Android tablet.

what if you set your PC's IP as a DMZ in the router?

I'd almost delete all the rules out and let the firewall prompt you again to allow access and see.

I had to screw around with all that to get it work with my windows phone. I had to turn the firewall on because having it off it didn't even want to try and work. Like the game or app was expecting it to be on.

DMZ usually means unfettered WAN-side access. Since both the phone (on wireless) and the PC (on a wire) are on the LAN, nothing should be filtered through the router at all? In any case, I've completely turned off the router's firewall and it didn't do anything.

My guess is that it might have something to do with the phone app. Network traffic shows as entering and leaving the PC, I just don't know if it's reaching the phone... (the router is pretty much 1 foot away from me as well, so it's not signal strength that's the issue).

Hey sniper,

This is exactly the problem im having. I tried emailing bethesda support, but they just sent me an automated reply and sent me to the forums if i have any further problems (really great help there, thanks guys)

Anyway, I have a couple of quick questions for you.

First of all i guess, did u ever find a solution to this?

Secondly, what router are you using.

I am using the same windows version as you, I have an asus rt-ac66u and have tried both my nexus 9 on marshmallow, and my oneplus one on lollipop. PC is on a wired connection, android devices on wifi (obviously)

I have tried both 2.4gh and 5ghz for the wifi network the android devices are connecting to. I am unable to connect the pc to wifi as my usb adapter (netgear a6200) refuses to work with win10.

I have run Fing on the android devices and can check port 27000 for any activity when FO4 is running, and i can see a bunch of pipboy info being broadcast, so the pc outbound side of things would appear to be working.

cant think of any other relevant info i can give you, but damn i hope we can find some sort of solution.

No man, sorry. Tried to do the whole DMZ thing recently and that didn't work either (as was expected). It seems that the phone app doesn't seem to receive the PC's reply or doesn't know what to do with it.

As far as router, I'm using a Motorola SBG6580. Generally, I like to use a dedicated router and not a modem/router. But, for sake of simplicity and the fact that I just had a G router, I opted for the Motorola doing all the work. I'm almost curious if hooking up my DIR-655 might fix the problem. But, I've had problems in the past running two subnets and having people connect to MP games on my setup.

Are you running custom roms on your phone or are they the vendor's normal roms?

Thanks on the Fing idea. I'll have to see if the phone sees any incoming traffic. Does Fing run in the background and do logging while you're in the Pipboy App sending the PC request?

You're supposed to start the app up before you start the game. Have you tried that?

I've read the opposite, but I'll try that now.

As expected, this had no effect.

Can you ping the phone's IP address from the PC?

FYI the opposite is wrong, its either the app or the game that has it written but it explicitly says to start the app first.

Hey guys, lets see, where to start.

I can ping the PC from the phone and the phone from the PC.

ROM on both the phone and tablet are stock.

The order i start the phone app and the game hasn't made a difference

Im not sure if Fing can monitor a port in the background while you run the pipboy app, all i was doing was clicking on my computers IP, clicking the "scan services" option clicking on port 27000 and then going "Test TCP connection"

maybe theres a better app that can log all activity on the 2 ports we are interested in so we can see exactly what is happening when we attempt to connect, but im not sure

Howdy,

I've been having the same issue across 2 devices (1 x ios, 1 x android), both devices see the local broadcast IP and actually when in game, both devices actually 'success!' in connecting, and then fail straight away. I initially got around this problem, buy not being in my powersuit when in game prior to connecting the pipboy app, however that isn't working either anymore.

To clarify, it worked fine (no matter which way I started the game or app), Friday no issues, Saturday unable to connect to the app at all, nothing has changed. I've portforwarded, and can see that packets are being sent and received by both devices on the network to the pipboy app, it just seems that the app doesn't know what to do with the handshake ?

I've removed the app from both devices, and same issue occurs.

What I've done so far :-

Disabled hardware / software firewall - No Success

Portforwarded - 27000 / 28000 (UDP & TCP on all ports) - No Success

DMZ - Not required.

Turned app off in game & re-enabled (restarted game) - No Success

I've noticed that if you alt - tab, try connecting the pipboy app, it also says "Success!" and then waits until alt-tab back, and then it fails.

At this stage, as this is still v1.0 of the app, I would say we need an update to the app.

Win 7 x64.

Regards

Can you source that for me please? Everything I've seen doesn't even specify.

This article here actually says to open the app after you've restarted the game to enable the app in game.
http://www.gamepur.com/guide/21142-how-connect-pip-boy-companion-app-fallout-4.html

That's neither here nor there at this point however. The issue is clearly a problem with the app not knowing how to respond to the unicast message from the pc.

I have already laid out that the app broadcasts a signal to the network. The PC then responds with the appropriate "hello phone, this is me, a PC." Except THAT signal gets lost in translation somehow.

Yes. Considering that in my original post I stated that the phone sent a signal to the network and the pc responded to the ip of the phone, it would be odd for the phone NOT to ping.

The game tells you this, or the app, when you attempt a connection. I could source but you have the game/app to check.

It matters because you have to troubleshoot from the correct setup. Makes no sense to be trying to make it work if you're starting off wrong.

I have the same issue with Win7 64 + SamsungG4. Used app "ES Explorer" from Google play to check if I can ever connect smartphone to PC - it works for me, but only after manually entering PC's IP and admin login/password on smartphone during connect - there is no option to do this in Pip-boy app. Searching web for any possible hints to try, but still nothing worked for me.

For me I did the following.

Game open, changed setting to enable Pipboy app. Closed game. Opened app on my android phone. Went to connect, couldn't find PC (as expected). Launched game, loaded save fully. Hit refresh on app, PC found, connected.

Somewhere in there, I think when I launched the game after restarting, Windows 10 popped up a firewall permissions window, which I had to alt-tab out of the game to allow.

If I was you I would undo all the port and firewall nonsense you've done, as it hasn't worked and may cause further issues.

For reference could this have anything to do with your network setup, such as NAT or DNS settings? I've had issues with my raspberry pi connecting to things before and giving it a static IP address solved that issue.

If it was me, that's where I'd start. Give your PC and phone a static IP address on your router. It might not work, but likely won't cause any problems either.

Ok, just done a test, I load a game 3 hours in pipboy connects no problems, I load a game 9 hours in, pipboy only connects when not in powerarmor, load a game 10 hours on pipboy no longer connects.... whut teh.. (note I've stayed in the same game instance.) so it HAS to be between the app and game.

Thanks for the advice though, was worth a go.

probably grasping at straws here. you're not all using kaspersky antivirus or something are you?

Nah, running no av, pointless (but that's an entirely different thread)

Hello

I installed the app on Android.

fallout 4 from steam for 4 Pc (Windows 10).

I followed all of your guides to connect the app to the game but it's still not working.

The app even identifies the IP address of the PC but: connection error.
the firewall has exclusions, windows defender also.
the wifi router has exclusions ports 27000 and 28000.
the app is activated on both the .ini files in the PC (documents and steam folders)

no effect...