We are aware of this bug, but unfortunately, we do not have a solid 100% fix for it at the moment.
However, we are making progress and have found a solution that works for some players.
Make sure both you and your friend have a solid internet connection and your computers meet the minimum requirements for Raft. If you or your friend is using Wi-fi, it might help to use ethernet instead.
We have grouped the two issues together into one article since they seem to be related to eachother.
Possible steps to fix the issue:
1. See if you computer has a program called "CloudFlare" or "GameFirstVI" installed and if so disable or uninstall it and see if your issue persist.
2. Make sure you restart Raft completely after you have disabled/uninstalled. Exit the game to desktop may be neccessary for the change to take effect.
If your issue persist:
CloudFlare and GameFirstVI is just two programs that we have confirmed to fix the issue for some players. The issue might arise from other programs that secures your internet access, handles VPN, extra firewall protection etc etc. Any program that has something to do with internet connection might be causing the issue at hand.
We have confirmed on multiple players that they have fixed this by disabling/uninstalling third party programs and strongly believe this to not be an issue with Rafts code at the moment.