Android client unable to establish P2P connection after version upgrade

[WXZhao7]

After upgrading from v0.1.11 to v0.2.1, the Android client is no longer able to establish any P2P connections with other clients.

I performed tests between a remote client and three local clients (all located behind the same router). Among the local clients:

Windows client – P2P connection successful
Linux client – P2P connection successful
Android client – ❌ P2P connection failed

It appears this issue only affects the Android client after the version update.

• Android
  

• Windows

❯ ping hk

Pinging hk.netbird.cloud [100.64.32.155] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 100.64.32.155: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=64
Reply from 100.64.32.155: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=64
Reply from 100.64.32.155: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=64
Reply from 100.64.32.155: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 100.64.32.155:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 37ms, Maximum = 39ms, Average = 38ms

~ took 5s
❯ ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Unknown adapter wt0:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : netbird.cloud
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 100.64.32.108
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.31.108
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.31.1

• Linux

alpine:~/netbird# ping hk
ping: bad address 'hk'
alpine:~/netbird# ping 100.64.32.155
PING 100.64.32.155 (100.64.32.155): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 100.64.32.155: seq=0 ttl=64 time=39.110 ms
64 bytes from 100.64.32.155: seq=1 ttl=64 time=39.181 ms
64 bytes from 100.64.32.155: seq=2 ttl=64 time=39.151 ms
64 bytes from 100.64.32.155: seq=3 ttl=64 time=39.249 ms
^C
--- 100.64.32.155 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 39.110/39.172/39.249 ms
alpine:~/netbird# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host proto kernel_lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0@if37: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether bc:24:11:b3:aa:68 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff link-netnsid 0
    inet 192.168.31.101/24 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::be24:11ff:feb3:aa68/64 scope link proto kernel_ll
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wt0: <POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1280 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/none
    inet 100.64.32.101/24 brd 100.64.32.255 scope global wt0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

client status from netbird status -d

 note12t.netbird.cloud:
  NetBird IP: 100.64.32.59
  Public key: 4vSQmQ+eZ9wWQlmvmjybtZB5y0b6Q3AEyHCMIUxeyxs=
  Status: Connected
  -- detail --
  Connection type: Relayed
  ICE candidate (Local/Remote): -/-
  ICE candidate endpoints (Local/Remote): -/-
  Relay server address: rels://streamline-ap-southeast-2b.relay.netbird.io:443
  Last connection update: 8 minutes, 9 seconds ago
  Last WireGuard handshake: 1 minute, 45 seconds ago
  Transfer status (received/sent) 5.7 KiB/5.0 KiB
  Quantum resistance: false
  Networks: -
  Latency: 0s

 alpine.netbird.cloud:
  NetBird IP: 100.64.32.101
  Public key: CYNUknnxoqvHF4Dg14gUqfUB2R4qWbAdt/Yko3gbmWk=
  Status: Connected
  -- detail --
  Connection type: P2P
  ICE candidate (Local/Remote): host/srflx
  ICE candidate endpoints (Local/Remote): 172.17.39.154:51820/198.51.100.0:51821
  Relay server address: rels://streamline-ap-southeast-2b.relay.netbird.io:443
  Last connection update: 41 minutes, 16 seconds ago
  Last WireGuard handshake: 13 seconds ago
  Transfer status (received/sent) 15.7 KiB/9.7 KiB
  Quantum resistance: false
  Networks: 192.168.31.107/32, 192.168.31.123/32
  Latency: 39.046357ms

 win11game.netbird.cloud:
  NetBird IP: 100.64.32.108
  Public key: n21BWMql9aKmU6nzR+muWaN+CTTtFmH8ikBxduL3KXk=
  Status: Connected
  -- detail --
  Connection type: P2P
  ICE candidate (Local/Remote): host/srflx
  ICE candidate endpoints (Local/Remote): 172.17.39.154:51820/198.51.100.0:51828
  Relay server address: rels://streamline-ap-southeast-2b.relay.netbird.io:443
  Last connection update: 9 seconds ago
  Last WireGuard handshake: 9 seconds ago
  Transfer status (received/sent) 796 B/852 B
  Quantum resistance: false
  Networks: -
  Latency: 37.806363ms

[WXZhao7]

Switched to JetBird client v1.4.6, which does not include the latest merged code, and P2P connection started working again. This suggests that the issue may be introduced in the newer version.

[pappz]

@WXZhao7 In the latest version, we introduced a new setting to force the relay connection. It is enabled by default, but you can change it in the settings. This setting was added to help reduce battery drain.

[LuckyTurtleDev]

@WXZhao7 In the latest version, we introduced a new setting to force the relay connection. It is enabled by default, but you can change it in the settings. This setting was added to help reduce battery drain.

Had the same issue. I appertly i never needed the relay service since hole punching was enough. However allowing p2p connection fix this "issue".

But i still have some question:

• How to best debug the self hosted relay?
• Why should i want (beside testing) to enforce relay connection instead of p2p?

[WXZhao7]

I saw this feature mentioned in the v0.2.0 changelog.
However, I have to disagree with #108, because Netbird is designed to provide a configuration-free peer-to-peer private network. Therefore, the default configuration should prefer P2P mode over relay mode.