BetterLAN

BetterLAN - Play "LAN" with friends anywhere, securely.

Introduction

BetterLAN is a networking mod that completely redefines how you play Minecraft with your friends. Say goodbye to complex port forwarding, router settings, or heavy third-party VPNs like Hamachi. BetterLAN connects players via a lightweight central relay node, making remote worlds appear directly in your Vanilla Multiplayer server list as if you were sitting in the same room.

Key Features

Zero Configuration Networking: Just publish your single-player world to LAN. Friends in your configured "Group" will instantly see your world in their Multiplayer menu.

End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): All game traffic is encrypted locally before leaving your computer. The relay node only forwards encrypted bytes and cannot read your game data.

Host Control: Whenever someone tries to join your world, you get a clickable prompt in your chat to [Accept] or [Reject] their connection.

Presence System: See who in your friend group is currently online and check their ping to the node in real-time via the in-game Node Config UI.

Offline UUID Fixes: Built-in support to fix UUIDs for offline-mode auth, ensuring player inventories and stats remain consistent.

How to Use

Configure: Click the [Node Config] button on the Main Menu. Enter the Node IP/Port, and agree on a secret Group name and Password with your friends.

Host: Open your single-player world and click "Open to LAN". The mod will automatically sync your room to the cloud.

Join: Your friends go to the standard "Multiplayer" menu. Your world will magically appear in their list.

Verify & Play: When a friend double-clicks to join, both of you will see a 6-digit Security Fingerprint. Verify it via voice chat, and the host clicks [Accept] in the game chat to let them in!

Details & Security Architecture

BetterLAN is built with a zero-trust architecture to ensure your gameplay and data remain strictly private:

ECDH Key Exchange: When a connection is established, the Host and Guest generate temporary Elliptic-Curve (EC) key pairs and exchange public keys to derive a shared secret.

AES-CTR Encryption: All Minecraft packets are wrapped in an AES-CTR encryption layer using the derived shared secret.

MITM Protection (Fingerprinting): To prevent malicious relay nodes or network hijackers from performing Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, the mod displays a 6-digit hex fingerprint (a SHA-256 hash of the final AES session key) to both the Host and the Guest. If the fingerprints match on both screens, the mathematical guarantee is that the connection is absolutely secure and untampered with.