TunnelCraft

TunnelCraft is a connectivity solution for Minecraft.

TunnelCraft allows players and server owners to establish stable, secure connections without exposing public network ports or maintaining a public IP address. Instead of relying on direct TCP connections, TunnelCraft tunnels the entire Minecraft protocol through a dedicated WebSocket-based relay network.

This relay system provides each server with its own persistent tunnel address (e.g., plpx-abc123) and automatically handles traffic forwarding between players and servers. The mod integrates deeply with Minecraft’s networking layer to ensure that all communication — including login, world data, chunk packets, entity updates, and plugin/mod traffic — behaves exactly like a standard direct server connection.

How do I set this mod up?

That’s really easy. Just drag the mod/plugin into your mod folder or plugin folder.
On a dedicated server, you will see the address printed in the console. Just give this address to all other players who should join. They can simply add this address as they would for any other server.

When opening a LAN world, just enter /tunnelcraft show and it will give you the address for your LAN world.

Even when TunnelCraft is installed as a plugin on a server, all connecting clients must still have the Fabric or NeoForge client version of TunnelCraft installed. The tunneling protocol is not compatible with vanilla clients, so the mod is required on both sides.

Official Website

Why is it lagging sometimes?

TunnelCraft routes all Minecraft traffic through a relay server. Because of that, performance depends heavily on the relay backend, network routing, server load, and the distance between players, the Minecraft server, and the relay.

I’m sorry if you experience lag, delays, or unstable connections while using TunnelCraft. I’m constantly working on improving the relay code, optimizing traffic forwarding, and making the tunnel system more stable and efficient.

However, TunnelCraft currently runs on my own self-hosted relay server, which has limited resources and is not nearly as powerful as a large commercial hosting infrastructure. Because of this, performance may vary, especially when many users are connected at the same time.

TunnelCraft is still actively being improved, and relay performance will continue to get better over time.

Disclaimer:
All data is routed through the TunnelCraft relay network. The relay backend evolves frequently, and changes to the tunneling protocol may break compatibility with older mod versions. For this reason, the latest version of the mod is always required, and backward compatibility cannot be guaranteed.