Call HN: Decentralized Nat Hole Punching Measurement Campaign

Hi HN,

during December 2022, we are running a measurement campaign to investigate decentralized NAT hole punching success rates using the libp2p DCUtR protocol [0]. Ubiquitous peer-to-peer connectivity is still a big challenge. If successful, NAT Hole Punching can be a game-changer for decentralised applications and networks!

For that we are searching for participants who would run a lean client on their machines that performs hole punches with other peers and then reports back the results to our server. We explained the measurement methodology in this video [1] and the linked repository above.

Running such a client certainly has privacy implications which are documented here [2]. Most importantly, we record public IP addresses, successful NAT port mappings, and the login router page (to draw conclusions about which routers work better than others).

Optionally, you can also sign up here [3] and provide additional information about your personal network and receive a personal API key so that we can link your data to your information. Obviously, this has stronger privacy implications - but this is totally optional.

The most frictionless way to participate is to head to the releases page [4] and download a client that suits your platform and needs. No sign-up required.

[0] https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/relay/DCUtR.md

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyhZWlDbcyM

[2] https://discuss.libp2p.io/t/call-for-participation-nat-hole-...

[3] https://forms.gle/h1ABCpS87jYmg9a48

[4] https://github.com/dennis-tra/punchr/releases/tag/v0.9.0