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Add NAT troubleshooting to documentation #6952

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momack2 opened this issue Mar 5, 2020 · 3 comments
Open

Add NAT troubleshooting to documentation #6952

momack2 opened this issue Mar 5, 2020 · 3 comments
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topic/docs-ipfs Topic docs-ipfs topic/nat Topic nat

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@momack2
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momack2 commented Mar 5, 2020

Location

http://127.0.0.1:8080/ipns/docs.ipfs.io/introduction/usage/ and http://127.0.0.1:8080/ipns/docs-beta.ipfs.io/how-to/command-line-quick-start/#take-your-node-online

Esp "Depending on the state of the network, curl may take a while. The public gateways may be overloaded or having a hard time reaching you."

Also missing in http://127.0.0.1:8080/ipns/docs-beta.ipfs.io/how-to/command-line-quick-start/#troubleshooting

Description

This gives the user little to no troubleshooting guides for WHY the public gateway may not be able to load content from their node. Often, this will be because their node is behind a NAT and not dialable. This is a common tripping point for your average user (who will be behind a home NAT) which is not going to be solved automatically by the 0.5 release - meaning reengaged users may run straight into this problem and conclude the network is still unperformant / inefficient.

REQUEST: We should add a troubleshooting guide about solving NAT connectivity (opening up inbound IPv6 ports on your home router) and change this line about "overloaded" to give more specific guides about why you may not be reachable. Something like these port forwarding guidelines: https://portforward.com/fortnite/ --- other work arounds also include configuring autonat.

Even better if we ALSO have a command to check NAT status and print out instructions directly within the deamon as suggested in #4352

@johnnymatthews
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johnnymatthews commented Mar 5, 2020

If someone can throw some basic instructions in here/point to any docs we already have, I can put a troubleshooting guide together.

Like you said @momack2, it should just be a case of enabling IPv6 on the users router, correct?

@johnnymatthews
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Also just to double check, we're talking about Network Address Translation, right?

@willscott
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We don't have a full IPFS specific story for learning if user is externally reachable yet. Some of that will get better with the other referenced bugs.

IPv6 is one possible mitigation for users to try (when their ISP supports it).
If your router supports UPnP, IPFS will attempt to automatically allow inbound traffic to access your local content. Some home routers may need to be configured to explicitly enable UPnP.

If you are at a larger organization or school, you may need to work with your network administrator to help IPFS work better. (since you won't have permission to change network policies)

If you are a home ISP user, and are not externally reachable, you can also configure port forwarding on your router. (this is the same process that BitTorrent, and many video games, may ask for) There tend to be router-specific guides for how to use the router's web interface to tell it to send incoming traffic meant for a specific application onwards to your computer.

NAT is Network Address Translation.

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Labels
topic/docs-ipfs Topic docs-ipfs topic/nat Topic nat
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