Unable to Connect to Friends Local Host World With VPN

[Golden]

I've been trying to connect to my friend's peer-to-peer world, but have had very mixed results. I am able to connect normally without the VPN. I am also able to connect to every other server and peer-to-peer world . It seems to only be his world that I can't connect to which makes this all the more confusing. When I connect to his world, it'll allow me to connect on my end but not his. It won't actually say that I joined the game or play the intro sound that plays on every other world. It'll put me in the game and I can interact with the world, but I can't open containers, and if I travel too far from where I spawn I'll just fall out of the world. Once I leave nothing I did will save and I'll be back in the exact same spot. I've already tried activating split tunneling which worked to help me connect to other worlds, but not my friends. I've also tried having him change the port to the same one as my VPN which occasionally will work, but it's rare. I've already disabled my firewall and done several other things with no results. If anyone has any tips for anything that can be done, please don't hesitate to say something.

[Golden]

Here are my logs of the most recent time. https://pastebin.com/2N3mrmNW

 

The world I'm having trouble connecting to is 'cnish63'

Edited January 24, 2023 by Golden
more info (see edit history)

[Beelzybub]

7 hours ago, Golden said:

I've also tried having him change the port to the same one as my VPN which occasionally will work, but it's rare.

How did he change the game port in a P2P game? Also, if you can connect to other servers, but not your friend,

maybe the problem is on your friend's computer.

[Pernicious]

You're getting a lot of networking time outs, as well as some explicit rejects, so it's almost certainly a network configuration error somewhere.

 

You haven't really explained why you need a VPN, or what kind of VPN you are using though. Can't really give much advice without more details on how it's all set up.

[Golden]

16 hours ago, Beelzybub said:

How did he change the game port in a P2P game?

Not exactly sure, but he's managed to do it and it has worked a few times before.

 

16 hours ago, Beelzybub said:

How did he change the game port in a P2P game? Also, if you can connect to other servers, but not your friend,

maybe the problem is on your friend's computer.

And that's kind of what I was thinking because I'm only struggling with a select few worlds. Know of anything they can do?

13 hours ago, Pernicious said:

You haven't really explained why you need a VPN, or what kind of VPN you are using though. Can't really give much advice without more details on how it's all set up.

I'm using Proton VPN, and I really just prefer to use it so my traffic can't be tracked through my wifi.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Golden (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

17 minutes ago, Golden said:

I'm using Proton VPN, and I really just prefer to use it so my traffic can't be tracked through my wifi.

Using WiFi is already putting you at a disadvantage. Adding a VPN to that is going to increase the delay even more. Not to mention that most of those VPN services are not reliable for streaming or playing games over. Proton's free package is a fine example. You basically have to shell out $5 a month to get a decent connection with it, but you're still adding a lot of unnecessary overhead to your data path.
Make sure you're using WireGuard and not OpenVPN if you absolutely insist on using it.

 

It also begs the question... If this is "your" WiFi, why are you worried about traffic being tracked?

This sounds more like you're on some public or school WiFi, which is abysmal at the best of times.

Edited January 24, 2023 by SylenThunder (see edit history)

[Pernicious]

4 hours ago, Golden said:

I'm using Proton VPN, and I really just prefer to use it so my traffic can't be tracked through my wifi.

 

Yeah, that's your problem right there.

 

Take a look at your log. You'll find lines like this:

Quote

2023-01-23T16:49:38 747.422 WRN NET: Requesting rules from TCP (98.175.78.85:26900) failed due to connection problems (No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

 

Most modern firewalls have the ability to reject connections from VPN services, because effectively, you're walking in with the declaration "I don't want to be accountable for anything I do here". It doesn't matter if you just value your privacy - because criminals do too, and now you look just like them. Hey - the vast majority of motorcyclists aren't there to hold up banks either. But you still see the "Must remove motorcycle helmets before entering" signs on banks.

 

But that's not causing your issues - otherwise you'd never be able to connect in the first place. This one's your issue:

 

Quote

2023-01-23T16:55:37 1105.999 INF NET: LiteNetLib trying to connect to: 184.180.234.129:26900

2023-01-23T16:55:37 1106.009 INF Exited thread ServerBrowserListUpdater

2023-01-23T16:55:39 1108.009 WRN NET: Requesting rules from TCP (184.180.234.129:26900) failed due to connection problems (Timeout)

2023-01-23T16:55:43 1111.747 INF NET: LiteNetLib: Connection failed: ConnectionFailed

2023-01-23T16:55:43 1111.747 INF NET: Steam NW trying to connect to: 184.180.234.129:26900

2023-01-23T16:55:43 1111.747 INF [Steamworks.NET] NET: Connecting to SteamID 90168578964799493

2023-01-23T16:55:43 1111.748 INF Started thread SteamNetworkingClient

2023-01-23T16:55:44 1112.720 INF [Steamworks.NET] NET: Connection established

2023-01-23T16:55:44 1112.793 INF [Steamworks.NET] NET: Password accepted

 

LiteNetLib is the preferred method for the game to connect. It's faster and lighter. However, you lost so many packets, the client decided not to wait any longer, and switched to SteamNetworking. SteamNetworking should be more reliable, but still can't make packets magically appear, and it has no fall back. So what happens is that the client lets you do an action locally, but doesn't update the server because it can't get packets through. The server gets some broken messages, and you end up falling through the world, or something else odd. Eventually you just crash out.

 

If you insist on using a VPN, then you need either a better quality VPN, and one that is private so you don't get blocked for looking suspicious, and don't have to fight contention. Or you need a VPN that allows you to configure application aware split tunnel, which will selectively not tunnel 7d2d traffic. Unless you know what you're doing, that's going to be a challenge for you to set up.

 

Oh, and unless you're using something like TOR browser, you're probably being tracked anyway. Even with TOR browser, there are ad companies using computer fingerprinting to track you. https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ Fools errand to protect anything more than the absolute basics in terms of privacy. Reject 3rd party cookies, use incognito mode, set your DNS to a non-tracking one, and don't do any illegal @%$# and you'll be fine.

[Golden]

On 1/24/2023 at 5:18 PM, SylenThunder said:

Proton's free package is a fine example. You basically have to shell out $5 a month to get a decent connection with it, but you're still adding a lot of unnecessary overhead to your data path

I'm paying for the full version and not really having any noticeable changes in my connection.

 

On 1/24/2023 at 5:18 PM, SylenThunder said:

It also begs the question... If this is "your" WiFi, why are you worried about traffic being tracked?

This sounds more like you're on some public or school WiFi, which is abysmal at the best of times

I'm on my own wifi and have locks on it that I'm trying to get around, and also not have my traffic constantly monitored by my parents.

On 1/24/2023 at 10:27 PM, Pernicious said:

LiteNetLib is the preferred method for the game to connect. It's faster and lighter. However, you lost so many packets, the client decided not to wait any longer, and switched to SteamNetworking. SteamNetworking should be more reliable, but still can't make packets magically appear, and it has no fall back. So what happens is that the client lets you do an action locally, but doesn't update the server because it can't get packets through. The server gets some broken messages, and you end up falling through the world, or something else odd. Eventually you just crash out.

 I don't fully understand what you're saying here. Mainly just with how the packets couldn't be sent properly. How do you lose packets, and why didn't the game just flat out refuse to connect me to the game if it's not getting enough?

 

On 1/24/2023 at 10:27 PM, Pernicious said:

If you insist on using a VPN, then you need either a better quality VPN, and one that is private so you don't get blocked for looking suspicious, and don't have to fight contention. Or you need a VPN that allows you to configure application aware split tunnel, which will selectively not tunnel 7d2d traffic. Unless you know what you're doing, that's going to be a challenge for you to set up.

The VPN I'm using is rated pretty well, so I don't feel like the quality would be much of an issue unless you need a top-notch one. What is the difference between a private and public VPN. What's application-aware split tunneling? I feel like that's what I'm using, but not sure what the actual terminology is for it. I should be able to figure out how to do anything that needs to be done, I just need to know what needs to be done.

I've switched to an ethernet atp, but I want to figure out what is causing it to act weird only in certain games.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy with other things the last few days.

[Pernicious]

6 hours ago, Golden said:

 I don't fully understand what you're saying here. Mainly just with how the packets couldn't be sent properly. How do you lose packets, and why didn't the game just flat out refuse to connect me to the game if it's not getting enough?

 

The VPN I'm using is rated pretty well, so I don't feel like the quality would be much of an issue unless you need a top-notch one. What is the difference between a private and public VPN. What's application-aware split tunneling? I feel like that's what I'm using, but not sure what the actual terminology is for it. I should be able to figure out how to do anything that needs to be done, I just need to know what needs to be done.

I've switched to an ethernet atp, but I want to figure out what is causing it to act weird only in certain games.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy with other things the last few days.

 

If I were the host of any kind of server, not just gaming servers, I might want to block people who use VPNs. As you know, VPNs are mostly for hiding your identity (although they do much more poorly than the VPN sellers would lead you to believe) It's pretty easy to block VPNs. Some VPN providers, like Proton, publish all their IPs for the world to see:

 

Proton would be considered a public VPN. It is well known as a VPN provider, and anyone can sign up to it. A private VPN would be one you configured yourself, for example into Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure. Or, if you worked for a company, a company VPN. These are much harder to block, because they don't advertise their IPs as VPNs.

 

You generally don't notice lost packets for most services, because most of the internet is carried over a protocol called Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP. It has what is called "reliable delivery". If you send a stream of packets in order, say, 1,2,3,4,5 and the recipient gets 1,2,4,5 only, it's smart enough to say "Hey, I didn't get 3, can you resend?" And it happens so quick, you won't even notice it.

 

This is not suitable for real time protocols such as voice or gaming - If packets 1,2,3,4,5 were bits of your voice saying "Hello" "I am" Pernicious" "How are" "You", by the time the recipient hears "Hello, I am <blank> How are you?" there's no point going back and asking for what was in the <blank>. If you did, you'd just get "Hello, I am How are you Pernicious" which doesn't make any sense. Likewise with games, there's no point asking for missed and out of order instructions to be resent. The game client and game server will just resync, and this is why sometimes you jump a little bit when lag spikes.

 

LiteNetLib is a protocol which is somewhere in between. It's light and fast like a voice protocol, but has some built in compensation for poor quality links. If LiteNetLib isn't being successfully established, there's only two possibilities: (1) The ports are blocked. (2) The amount of loss is so high, LiteNetLib's in-built compensation can't compensate enough for it to be usable. This is why I am taking a very educated guess (as a network engineer) - that you are having packet loss.

 

That's all really a very long way of explaining "Your VPN is probably not as good as you think".

 

What is application aware split tunneling? If the Proton client is able to identify specific traffic you don't want to encrypt, it will send it out directly, which should be more reliable. Do you have access to server side logs? If so, compare the IP that you're supposedly connecting from, against your real IP. If they're the same, then you're split tunneling correctly. If not, you're still VPNing 7d2d traffic.