Local sync IP alternative to remote

[diyoyo]

Describe feature

Hi,
in many self-hosted apps, there is the option to specify a local ip address to use preferably when at home, versus the default distant (internet) one when away.

It would be nice to have a similar option in Trilium Next, to avoid unnecessary distant data travels when the server is right next door.

Additional Information

PS: It could also be the other way around, since I never know whether the data is sent locally once the DNS is resolved to the public IP matching the IAP's router that manages the DHCP...

PPS: sorry if I don't really know what I'm talking about, that's on my todo to check on which server the data really is transitting.

[eliandoran]

in many self-hosted apps, there is the option to specify a local ip address to use preferably when at home

Could you give me an example of such an app?

@perfectra1n , what's the solution here? I would say that this has to be handled more on the DNS side, by overriding the IP to the domain with the local one.

Edit: Converting to discussions until we have a consensus on whether we should have this as part of the application.

[diyoyo]

"many" was a bit exagerated, sorry. I can cite Immich and Home Assistant for sure ; also Jellyfin (detects both ip while scanning [to be verified]), if I recall properly.

Thanks for having closed this, you're right: it's not a mature request yet.

[perfectra1n]

If you’re on the same network as your internet-exposed Trilium instance, NAT hairpin will minimize the hops needed to reach it (and make it available in the first place).

I’m not sure if this “distant travel” of the network request holds any water though, as most network requests, even on coax, are completed in < 100ms.

Even if we do support something like the scenario asked above, Trilium will still respond at the same speed minus the time it takes for the router to decide it’s a NAT hairpin route (which we’re talking fractions of a nano second).

Even network requests to the opposite side of the world from wherever one is located is typically < 300ms, and having it swap to a local IP versus using the internet-exposed URL would only save the time it takes for the NAT hairpin on the router.

The only app I know of that does something like this is Immich.

[diyoyo]

If you’re on the same network as your internet-exposed Trilium instance, NAT hairpin will minimize the hops needed to reach it (and make it available in the first place).

I’m not sure if this “distant travel” of the network request holds any water though, as most network requests, even on coax, are completed in < 100ms.

Even if we do support something like the scenario asked above, Trilium will still respond at the same speed minus the time it takes for the router to decide it’s a NAT hairpin route (which we’re talking fractions of a nano second).

Even network requests to the opposite side of the world from wherever one is located is typically < 300ms, and having it swap to a local IP versus using the internet-exposed URL would only save the time it takes for the NAT hairpin on the router.

The only app I know of that does something like this is Immich.

Actually, I was not thinking about speed at all. As you explained perfectly well, it won't change much.
My number one concern is about eco-responsibility and minimalism. I'm just trying to avoid data travelling back and forth to the same place if I can avoid it. But I have no idea whether this has a real effect or not.
My number two concern is about security. Why make data leave my internal network if I can avoid it ?

[perfectra1n]

First concern - the wattage and time it would take to develop and support the feature would far outweigh the wattage saved by the networking hardware, even scaled out over years (in my opinion)

Second - if you access Trilium via HTTPS, it’s encrypted in transit. If you (or someone) broke SSL/TLS encryption, we would have much bigger fish to fry than your notes. If someone is “listening” to your network traffic and saving all your packets, they would just see random bytes of data that mean absolutely nothing.

[perfectra1n]

[eliandoran]

For now we'll not implement this as a DNS configuration would solve the issue in a much better way.
On our side we would have to detect on which network we are, which might have an impact of its own.
If there are more requests for it, perhaps we'll reconsider.

[diyoyo]

Sure.
I realize that a partial workaround, since there is no stable native mobile app yet, is to just create two bookmarks on the mobile launchscreen : one for the local and one for the external. Then, the user chooses which one to open.

Is there a web browser cache or something that could be altered in the process and could corrupt the syncing?
(I know I had a few issues while trying to use different versions of TriliumNext on the same macbook, because they were accessing the same local db)