UDT Connections
From PowerFolder Wiki
PowerFolder is able to connect computers via UDT network protocol. The UDT protocol is optimized for high speed data transfers. It also brings very handy features to run PowerFolder behind a Internet router or NAT device. UDT uses the UDP hole punching technique, which makes the configuration of port forwarding at the router obsolete. Many other popular peer-to-peer software (e.g. Skype) also use this technique to simplify the network setup process.
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Supported platforms
UDT connections are supported on the following operating systems:
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP SP3
- Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP with Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package
UDT is currently not supported on Mac or Linux. On these platforms PowerFolder is still able to connect with full relayed or HTTP tunneled connections. Since both methods requires the traffic to be relayed by the PowerFolder servers the transfer speed might not reach the maximum of your Internet connection. We strongly recommend to correctly setup any firewall and router on these platforms for optimal performance.
Using UDT (hole punching aka NAT traversal)
By default PowerFolder tries to connect via UDT (hole punching mode) if no direct TCP connection is possible. Before a hole punching UDT connection can be established it is required, that all computers are connected to the PowerFolder servers. These act as relay for the connection initialization handshake - afterwards the actual communication happens directly between the connected computers. PowerFolder automatically tries to connect to the PowerFolder servers and usually gets at least connected via HTTP-Tunnel.
UDT (hole punching) is enabled by default to make the setup process as easy as possible. You can disable UDT (hole punching) under Preferences/Networking/Use NAT traversal
Using UDT (direct)
It is also possible to directly connect two computers via UDT without being necessarily connected to the PowerFolder servers. This option is disabled by default and only recommend when using PowerFolder over a high speed data network. It requires unrestricted communication between the computers without getting blocked by any firewall, router or NAT device.
You can enable UDT (direct) connections under Preferences/Pro Settings/Direct UDT connect. This option controls if PowerFolder should try to connect via UDT directly before trying to connect via TCP. When enabled PowerFolder also listens for incoming UDT connections on the configured port(s) under Preferences/Network/Advanced/Port. The default port is 1337. Attention: Due to conflicts of UDT on port 1337 (UDP) PowerFolder disables the network broadcasting in LAN, which also uses the the default port 1337 (UDP).
Troubleshooting
- Check if UDT is available on your platform. The option "NAT traversal" should show up under Preferences/Network. If not please install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package.
- Try to manually connect the computers under Find Friends/Connect, enter "IP:port", e.g. 192.168.0.10:1337
- To check if a connection is established via UDT please turn on debug logging in PowerFolder. Then open a chat with the target computer - the info should show "ESUDTConnectionHandler" (instead of ESConnectionHandler).
- Execute "netstat -a -p UDP" on the command line. There should be one line with "0.0.0.0:1337" (Or a different port and network address if configured)
- Check the debug logs for any problems with UDT components.
- High CPU load: Disable ZIP compression in LAN under Preferences/Advanced and configure all computers to be detected on LAN via the LAN-IP-List.
