ZeroTier is a tool for achieving network penetration and can be used to establish a P2P VPN (point-to-point virtual private network). No complex setup is required; just install the client and join the network you created.

After joining the network, each client can be considered as being in a local area network (virtual), and can be assigned a local area network IP address, allowing devices to communicate as if they were on the same local network.

Similar to ZeroTier, there is also TailScale, which has similar functionalities.

Registration

Visit the official website and select Sign Up.

After registration, select the basic plan.

Then create a virtual local area network:

Once created, click on the network id to enter the details page of this local area network. Note that this network id is crucial information.

At the bottom of the details page, you can change the IP segment of the local area network:

Client – Linux

Installation ^1

curl -s https://install.zerotier.com | sudo bash

Start

sudo systemctl start zerotier-one

Check Status

sudo systemctl status zerotier-one

Join Network

Here you will need to use the network id mentioned earlier:

sudo zerotier-cli join <network id>

After joining the network via the command line, you need to configure the device in ZeroTier, mainly to authorize the device; otherwise, it will not participate in network communication.

Method 1, check the device and select authorize

Method 2, click the edit button of the device and authorize the device in the device details:

Check Network Connection Status:

You can confirm that you have successfully joined the network with the following command:

$ sudo zerotier-cli listnetworks

200 listnetworks <nwid> <name> <mac> <status> <type> <dev> <ZT assigned ips>

Set to Start Automatically on Boot:

To ensure that the ZeroTier service starts automatically when the system reboots, you can run the following command:

sudo systemctl enable zerotier-one

Client – Windows

Installation

Installing on Windows is very simple; just download from the download page and install it:

Join Network

After installation, find ZeroTier

Left-click or right-click and select Join New Network:

Interconnect Testing

Once all devices are authorized, you can find the device’s IP on ZeroTier:

By pinging between the two devices, you can see that they can ping each other:

[^1]: Joining the Zerotier network on Debian systems: https://www.ipeter.work/debian%E7%B3%BB%E7%BB%9F%E5%8A%A0%E5%85%A5zerotier%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C/