Does anyone know if the websocket connection goes through the internet, or if there's anyway it can shortloop to using LAN if both devices are on the same netwo

Does anyone know if the websocket connection goes through the internet, or if there's anyway it can shortloop to using LAN if both devices are on the same network? I got disconnected twice within 1 minute, so I'm guessing the former... That, and I suppose unless you literally give it the internal IP of a device, it can't really make any assumptions (i.e. it's meant to work over internet too).