This project is a basic P2P messaging client that utilizes NAT hole punching. It has two parts:
server/: used for initial connection and to exchange NAT IP & port. Deployed onto Google Cloud using Terraform code inserver_deploy/.client/: used for actually sending and receiving messages. Connects to server, then uses information to make P2P connection.
NOTE: NAT hole punching doesn't work on all networks. Before you use this, ensure that you have a permissive NAT that allows for hole punching.
Two clients that use the same "keyword" can send messages between each other, as you'd expect from a standard messaging client.
In order to run the server, you'll need Rust and Cargo installed. To run, go into the server folder and run cargo run --release.
In order to run the client, you'll need Rust and Cargo installed.
For GUI support: on macOS and Windows, nothing extra is needed. However, on Linux, you'll need to run this:
# Distros that use apt
sudo apt install libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libspeechd-dev libxkbcommon-dev libssl-dev
# Fedora/Derivatives
dnf install clang clang-devel clang-tools-extra speech-dispatcher-devel libxkbcommon-devel pkg-config openssl-devel
If you can't install these, you can just run in console mode, as shown below.
To run, go into the client folder and run cargo run --release. If you don't have a display, console mode will automatically be launched; otherwise, a GUI will launch once a connection is established. If you'd like to use console mode directly, run cargo build --release, go into target/release, and run ./client --console.