Delphi UDP Hole Punching: on internet not always works - delphi

Question

I'm trying to implement UDP Hole Punching with Delphi with Indy and Firemonkey technology.
I have tried to follow this document: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/1959162_Peer-to-Peer_Communication_Across_Network_Address_Translators
The program seems to work but is NOT stable.
If I work on a system on the local intranet no problem.
If I work on an internet, it doesn't always work and I don't know why.
I have created two applications.
The first is server side.
Everytime all clients connect correctly to server.
The server registers the Local IP and Internet IP pairs in a variable (fPeers).
I created an IdUDPServer instance.
This is the “Connect push button” code:
procedure TForm1.B_ConnectClick(Sender: TObject);
var
vIdSocketHandle: TIdSocketHandle;
begin
if IdUDPServer.Active then
begin
IdUDPServer.Active := False;
B_Connect.Text := 'Connect';
end
else
begin
IdUDPServer.Bindings.Clear;
vIdSocketHandle := IdUDPServer.Bindings.Add;
vIdSocketHandle.IP := GStack.LocalAddress;
vIdSocketHandle.Port := E_POrt.Text.ToInteger;
IdUDPServer.Active := True;
B_Connect.Text := 'Disconnect';
end;
end;
During the IdUDPServerUDPRead event I capture the Local and Internet IP addresses of the clients that connect.
In the TStringLIST called fPeerIP I add the list of addresses.
procedure TForm1.IdUDPServerUDPRead(AThread: TIdUDPListenerThread;
const AData: TIdBytes; ABinding: TIdSocketHandle);
var vPair: string;
vData: string;
vString: string;
vLog: string;
begin
vPair := ABinding.PeerIP + ':'+ABinding.PeerPort.ToString;
vData := BytesToString(AData);
vLog := '';
if leftstr(vdata,7) = 'LOCALIP' then
begin
vString := vPair+#9+lsExtract(vData,2,',');
if fPeerIP.IndexOfName(vString) = -1 then
begin
fPeerIP.Add(vString);
M_Peers.Lines.Add(vString);
vLog := vLog + vString + #13#10;
IdUDPServer.Send(ABinding.PeerIP, ABinding.PeerPort, 'Peer aggiunto alla lista');
end;
end
else vLog := vData;
end;
On the client side, I created an IdUDPServer instance which, upon connection, sends a string to the server.
procedure TForm2.B_ConnectClick(Sender: TObject);
var vIdSocketHandle: TIdSocketHandle;
vLocalAddressList: TIdStackLocalAddressList;
vI: Integer;
vSendLIST: TStringLIST;
begin
if IdUDPServer.Active then
begin
Timer.Enabled := False;
IdUDPServer.Active := False;
B_Connect.Text := 'Connect';
M_Networks.Lines.Clear;
M_Debug.Lines.Clear;
LB_Peers.Items.Clear;
end
else
begin
try
vSendLIST := TStringLIST.Create;
IdUDPServer.Bindings.Clear;
vLocalAddressList := TIdStackLocalAddressList.Create;
GStack.GetLocalAddressList(vLocalAddressList);
M_Networks.Lines.Clear;
for vI := 0 to vLocalAddressList.Count-1 do
begin
if vLocalAddressList.Addresses[vI].IPVersion = id_IPV4 then
begin
M_Networks.Lines.Add(vLocalAddressList.Addresses[vI].IPAddress);
vSendLIST.Add(Format('LOCALIP,%s:%d',[vLocalAddressList.Addresses[vI].IPAddress,E_ClientPort.Text.ToInteger]));
end;
end;
vIdSocketHandle := IdUDPServer.Bindings.Add;
vIdSocketHandle.Port := E_ClientPort.Text.ToInteger;
vIdSocketHandle.IP := '0.0.0.0';
IdUDPServer.Active := True;
for vI := 0 to vSendLIST.Count-1 do
IdUDPServer.Send(E_Server.Text, E_Port.Text.ToInteger, vSendLIST[vI]);
B_Connect.Text := 'Disconnect';
if Assigned(vSendLIST) then FreeAndNil(vSendLIST);
finally
if Assigned(vLocalAddressList) then FreeAndnil(vLocalAddressList);
end;
end;
end;
Also on the client side, in the IdUDPServerUDPRead event I detect the list of Peers (function sent by the server) and send a "PING" to each connected peer.
I realize maybe I have given little information.
I'd like to know your opinion and possibly indicate to me if I made a mistake in the process that activates the Hole Punching.
Thanks in advance
LS

Answer 1

Your code is theoretically right and may work on some NAT routers but it will not work on the rest
I have been trying to achieve UDP Hole Punching for many years but it's really complicated,
you need to combine many NAT Traversal mechanisms together to make it work in the most cases
Reading about STUN, TURN and ICE mechanisms may help