Trying to communicate via internet

[ygreq]

Hi there!

Newbie questions for sure. I finally got a hold of a 4g router and wanted to test ultragrid over internet. I start with simple things.

On PC1 I am sending uv -t testcard -d gl:d [EXTERNAL_IP_of_PC2]
On PC2 I am sending uv -t testcard -d gl:d [EXTERNAL_IP_of_PC1]

I opened ports 5004, 5006, 5104, and 5016 on both routers. I used Port Forwarding before so I believe everything is set up right there.

The connection does not work. What am I missing?

I also looked at NAT traversal, but it's a bit too advanced for me. :/

Any suggestions?

Thank you so much!

[ygreq]

BTW, this info appears: [NAT] Private outbound IPv4 address detected and bound to a non-dynamic port. Consider adding '-N' option for NAT traversal.

I added -N like this uv -t testcard -d gl:d [EXTERNAL_IP_of_PC2] -N but it gives me tons of errors:

[NAT] PCP - cannot create video flow!
....
[NAT] PCP initialization failed!
[NAT] NAT PMP - using gateway: 192.168.1.1
[NAT] NAT PMP - readnatpmpresponseorretry returned -100 (TRY AGAIN)

[ygreq]

I just tested Server mode and it looks like it's working. :) Is this one of the normal ways of using UltraGrid or should I struggle to make them work without Server Mode?

[MartinPulec]

On laptop on TP-Link, without -N it starts and it sends data to the other end.

Just a clarification - the parameter for NAT traversal (-N) doesn't affect sending in any way. It is mostly useful only for the receiver. (But of course if initialization of NAT traversal fails, it won't send anyway.)

With -N, it gives me the same error. The data I see on the other end is missing frames, it's corrupt, but still. Probably from the router or the fact that it's a 4G network. Aaand I did not use a codec which I will do from now on. (LE: Yeap! Works perfect with a codec but only one way :D)

It shows:

[testcard] 15 frames in 5.09273 seconds = 2.94537 FPS
[testcard] 14 frames in 5.06578 seconds = 2.76364 FPS
[testcard] 14 frames in 5.06252 seconds = 2.76542 FPS
[testcard] 14 frames in 5.06861 seconds = 2.7621 FPS
[testcard] 14 frames in 5.05042 seconds = 2.77205 FPS
[testcard] 14 frames in 5.06678 seconds = 2.76309 FPS

So my guess is that the settings on the TP-Link router are not helping and should be modified. Or the settings on the laptop itself. But I did stop the Windows Firewall and did another test and it still did not work.

Any suggestions in this situation? Thank you!!!

What is exactly the outgoing bandwidth utilized by UG here? Hard to say what limits sending - it can be a flow control. Or just an insufficient performance eg. for uncompressed video.

[MartinPulec]

I just tested Server mode and it looks like it's working. :) Is this one of the normal ways of using UltraGrid or should I struggle to make them work without Server Mode?

Well, I don't know what is a normal way :) I'd say that ideal is not having a NAT. It is just another workaround to traverse a NAT, I'd say.

[ygreq]

I just tested communicating (audio only for now as don't yet have access to 2 fixed internet non-metered connections (one is fixed non-metered and the other is mobile and metered) using ZeroTier. I set the virtual network IPs and it seems to work without the need for the public IP addresses or setting any NAT traversal options. Do you think there'll be some limitations with this setup? Like I said, I just send minimal data for now and this is why i am asking, but curious if you used ZeroTier or something similar (VPN) in your research.

Thank you!!

[MartinPulec]

I don't know technical details of ZeroTier but if the data plane runs over UDP and the path is direct, I expect it to work correctly - the encapsulation should add only a small overhead and the network should behave in accordance whith the underlying network. I assume that it could behave just similarly to VNC over UDP.