[Opensim-users] Sharing a set of ini for NAT grids

[Jeff Kelley]

Hi Serendipity.

Yes, this is for a grid hypergrid behind a residential gateway, box ou router.
It does not apply to a standalone.

In grid mode, communication between simulators and ROBUST use a 
private port (8003 by default). This port should be kept private 
(hence the name) inside you LAN or server running the grid.

Other ports : ROBUST (default 8002), simulator and regions ports must 
be accessible to any viewer connecting to the grid.

If you run a grid at home, BaseURL will be something like 
http://111.22.33.44 or htt://mygrid.dyndns.org. This is your external 
IP on the internet. The ports must be opened at the gateway level 
(box or router "NAT rules", "port forwarding").

Let's say for example your grid server is on a PC at local address 
192.168.0.15 and use ports 8002 (ROBUST), 8010, 8011, 8012 
(simulators and regions). Your NAT rules will look like :

     8002-8012     192.168.0.15     TCP/UDP

meaning that a request incoming for ports 8002 to 8013 should be 
routed to the PC at local address192.168.0.15.

Also see http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Network_Settings#NAT_and_Port_Forwarding

Yourself inside the LAN should connect you viewer to this address 
(loginuri=http://mygrid.dyndns.org:8002). This url refers to your 
external IP on the internet, but is folded to, or "loopbacked" to the 
internal IP 192.168.0.15. This is NAT loopback.

Not any box/router does NAT loopback, see 
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/NAT_Loopback_Routers

What happens to the private port? In the default configuration, its 
url is http://mygrid.dyndns.org:8003 and is also accessed via the 
loopback mechanism. Anybody outside can connect to port 8003 and this 
is not desirable.

Using the modified ini's, you may declare PrivURL=http://192.168.0.15 
(if ROBUST and simulators runs on different machines) or 
PrivURL=http://localhost (if they run on the same machine).

The private connections between simulators and ROBUST are now local 
and you may exclude port 8003 from your NAT rules, or choose a port 
outside the range 8002-8012.

>  Are the servers using the grid accessible to other machines in at 
>least the same lan?

Yes, the server is accessible to any machine in the same LAN and on 
the internet.

If the viewer and the grid runs on the same machine, you may want the 
simpler software loopback adapter.

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/NAT_Loopback_Routers#Windows_XP.2C_Windows_7.2C_8.2C_8.1.2C_10_Loopback_Adapter_Install:


-- Jeff




At 1:34 PM -0700 2/7/19, Serendipity Seraph wrote:

>I am not altogether sure what this does for me.  This is for an actual grid
>rather than standalone?  If actual grid is it accessible from other
>machines?  Are the servers using the grid accessible to other machines in
>at least the same lan?