How client connect server?

[_Who]

I tried to build dst dedicated server using three different VPS,VPS A from vultr Seattle, VPS B is located in Southern China and they both have public ip, VPS C is also located in Southern China but does not have a public ip, I need port forwarding to allow external access to it.
i can join they all through the in-game browser,but the ping is very strange.
in my location,i ping A 180ms, 200ms+ in game; ping B 50ms, but 120ms+ in game;ping C 50ms, and 50ms in game;

seems only VPS C work normal.

another problem , i can only join C by c_connect command

maybe that's what causing all the problems?

i found a website :https://dstserverlist.appspot.com/ which list dst servers, my server B in it show it use Steam(Singapore), and server C use Steam(China).

from my living ping singapore is about 120ms ,is it possible that when i join server B is through Steam Relay?

[Daniel86268]

It is very possible that the DST Server on your VPS B is unhappy with either a firewall, or some other network configuration that prevents direct connects, and does the Steam NAT traversal fallback. This noticably increases ping. 

Not sure why it wouldn't allow you to join using the server browser if you can connect using c_connect(), however c_connect always directly connects to the server, avoiding any steam traversals. Can you connect to the A and B servers using c_connect? And does the Ping change?

Otherwise it could also be a bandwidth problem (doesn't have to be server or client, it can be anything in the connection), while the DST server really doesn't need much, if the bandwidth is very limited, some packets have to queue up, which increases latency. A ping wouldn't consume enough bandwidth to cause the same effect.

[_Who]

4 hours ago, Daniel86268 said:

It is very possible that the DST Server on your VPS B is unhappy with either a firewall, or some other network configuration that prevents direct connects, and does the Steam NAT traversal fallback. This noticably increases ping. 

Not sure why it wouldn't allow you to join using the server browser if you can connect using c_connect(), however c_connect always directly connects to the server, avoiding any steam traversals. Can you connect to the A and B servers using c_connect? And does the Ping change?

Otherwise it could also be a bandwidth problem (doesn't have to be server or client, it can be anything in the connection), while the DST server really doesn't need much, if the bandwidth is very limited, some packets have to queue up, which increases latency. A ping wouldn't consume enough bandwidth to cause the same effect.

i can only join server c by c_connect command,it is strange, my server A and B have public ip and no any firewall setting,i use ubuntu and ufw is inactive,normally all their ports are open

[Daniel86268]

On 6/20/2025 at 12:12 PM, _Who said:

i can only join server c by c_connect command,it is strange, my server A and B have public ip and no any firewall setting,i use ubuntu and ufw is inactive,normally all their ports are open

I could imagine that Hosters A and B do some sort of NAT that the DST server doesn't like?