Connection problem

[Michael Dessen]

Jesse, I'm doing a project at a high school and suspect this is their firewall, but I'm having a problem I've never had before: On ethernet or wifi or both, when I click "connect to group" (any group), nothing at all happens, not even an error message. I've requested a port forwarding rule from them, but in the meantime, can you offer any other steps to help troubleshoot this? I can ping google.com but not <aoo.sonobus.net> in case that is a clue, and I also verified using a link you posted in another discussion that I'm behind a normal NAT.

Thanks!

Michael

[Michael Dessen]

Also, one machine on ethernet gives no error message, but another on wifi does and the msg says that the server "actively refused" the connection.

[Jesse Chappell]

The "nothing at all happens" thing is definitely weird. This is on
hardware that works fine when not using the school's network (like at
home)?

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

Jesse

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[Michael Dessen]

Thanks for the reply, Jesse. Yes, the same computer works fine elsewhere. I am also baffled. Some more info:

They set up 2 port forwarding rules for me, one TCP/UDP and one UDP, and JackTrip works fine using those (the first for the handshake, 2nd for the audio, in Hub server mode).

They seem to have an aggressive firewall, because I couldn’t VNC out to manage a remote computer, though that worked when I used a software VPN. It just occurred to me now to test Sonobus on the software VPN too, which I’ll do tomorrow. But even if that works, it's not ideal longterm since it adds latency. Currently I’m using JackTrip to get to a server and then connecting via Blackhole to the sonobus session with others there.

It’s clearly not reaching the networking server to initiate the IP hole punching (if that is what you use?), so if possible, could you summarize what is required for that initial outgoing connection, such as what protocol is used and what default ports? I could then share that with their IT admin and try to figure it out. I can try to figure this out on the github repo but it would be great if you could just give me the basics. Thanks so much!

Michael

[Jesse Chappell]

It's just a basic outgoing TCP connection to a server on the public
internet on port 10998, that's one hard-ass firewall that won't allow
that... but there you go if you need it.

Jesse

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[Michael Dessen]

Haha! Thanks, Jesse. I will see if opening up that port works.

Michael

[Michael Dessen]

Hi Jesse. I just  used netcat to verify that I can make the outgoing TCP connection, even on wifi, and without using a VPN:

---

% nc -v aoo.sonobus.net 10998
Connection to aoo.sonobus.net port 10998 [tcp/*] succeeded!

---

However, when I tried to use Sonobus, the same problem happened (nothing happens when I click "connect"). I then tried Sonobus using a software VPN, and it worked.

Do you have any way to explain this or is there something I can configure differently to test it? I'd rather avoid the VPN (or bridging with JackTrip) if possible, so if you have any ideas please let me know. Thanks!

Michael

[Jesse Chappell]

You will also need to allow outgoing UDP on 10998 as well....

jlc

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[Michael Dessen]

SOLVED, thanks Jesse! I'll summarize here for anyone finding this in the archives:

I am using Sonobus at a high school that has a super aggressive firewall (which I am guessing many high schools do). Clicking on "connect" did nothing or gives an error message, because the firewall was set to block outgoing TCP/UDP messages to a public server, even though this is unusually restrictive behavior. If this happens to you, ask the Network Admin person to allow outgoing TCP/UDP requests on port 10998. That solved the problem (and it needs to be both TCP and UDP).  Note that this does not address the actual exchange of audio over UDP and is instead for the initial connection request only, so if it doesn't work, you may also need to request a UDP port be opened (for both outgoing and incoming) and specify the port number in the Options tab in Sonobus, but it's possible that won't be necessary.

Michael