How does ZeroTier work?

How do you use ZeroTier for gaming?

Here's how to get you and your friends to play.

As you've likely noticed if you've used the service before, ZeroTier has no real graphical frontend. Instead, the service provides two command line utilities: ztctl and ztcp. These allow you to control the entire ZeroTier networking infrastructure from your system, including the remote connection servers, the remote nodes and of course, the zero-configuration tunneling clients. The only visual element is the ZeroTier logo.

With that in mind, here are a few ways you can use ZeroTier with friends. Setting up a Minecraft Server. You can use this method to play Minecraft, or anything else you can configure a remote connection for on a normal LAN. Simply join a friend's ZeroTier server.

Note that this won't work with a VPN as a tunneling client. The VPN will provide an end-to-end connection that can't be routed around by the ZeroTier connection servers.

Setting up a Gaming Server. Using this method, you and your friends can use ZeroTier to create a distributed gaming server. For example, you could each run your own server for your own game. If you have a friend in a different city, you can set up a ZeroTier connection between you and your friend, using any combination of the following features:

Sharing your public IP addresses over ZeroTier. Using local subnets for your tunnel clients. Creating your own subnetworks. The ZeroTier Client. At this point, you and your friends just need to figure out how to create connections between each other. This is where the ZeroTier client comes in. It is a single executable, and requires no installation. You simply start the program and choose a configuration option from the menu. The next section will explain some of those options.

In order to connect to a remote node, your ZeroTier client must know the remote node's public IP address. That is, it must send a request to the ZeroTier connection servers and then forward that information to the zero-configuration client on the remote side. This is what the public IP addresses and subnets are for.

After you create a ZeroTier connection, you should be able to see the public IP address of the remote node in your ZeroTier client's window.

How does ZeroTier work?

ZeroTier is a solution for your virtualization and hyperconverged deployments, without the hassle of managing or operating any additional infrastructure or services.

It allows you to access all your servers on-prem and in the cloud without network hops. And since it doesn't have network hops, it bypasses all WAN/Internet performance related problems, and offers much faster latency, jitter, speed, and scalability. It also offers an extremely high level of security.

You no longer need to use VPN connections with the servers on the premises. Instead, it will use secure tunnel connections. It also allows you to choose between OpenVPN, iKEv2, IPSec, SSTP, and Teredo.

You also get a lot of performance out of these secure tunnel connections as ZeroTier will encrypt traffic and then compress and rate-limit it over the secure connection. So not only can you get a secure tunnel connection from a remote location to the on-prem servers, but you also get a reliable, high performance solution over that secure tunnel connection.

How fast does it work? When ZeroTier is working properly, we can expect an average of 1000 requests per second. It is worth noting that ZeroTier has different rates depending on the underlying hardware it runs on, and that some networks are slower or more congested than others. Why is it different from other virtual private networks? One big advantage of ZeroTier is that it makes all your virtual network connections to the cloud servers appear as if they were all on the same physical machine. This means it bypasses all bandwidth limitations such as throughput limits on the WAN.

It also bypasses all latency or delay issues, because it does not go through network hops. And it bypasses all bottlenecks, problems and congestion on the WAN/Internet.

What kind of performance are we talking about? The most common response you see when reading about VPNs (and especially public VPNs) is Oh, you can't compare my VPN to one where the data is on my internal servers. The problem with this response is, it's simply not true.

Here's why: Bandwidth limitation - A typical 10Mb fiber connection is not even enough to handle the fastest VPN connections we have today.

Does ZeroTier work as a VPN?

ZeroTier works as a VPN when used as a Client (aka, on your iPhone or computer). There is a difference between this and it also being a VPN when used as a Server (aka, on its own). When used as a client, ZeroTier works completely as a VPN - but as a server it's just a virtual network with a private address space and no extra VPN capabilities.

I'm an advocate for the use of open VPN networks (with OpenVPN and similar programs) because you can run a service that will give you access to public infrastructure such as Google, Amazon, and the Public Domain. OpenVPN provides you a means to connect to any of those services as long as you configure them correctly.

ZeroTier doesn't have openVPN. So you would need to modify ZeroTier to be an OpenVPN Server if you wanted to use it in a similar fashion.

Will using ZeroTier make my traffic beepy? No! Your traffic will remain encrypted. ZeroTier never re-encrypts anything so it always leaves the original encrypted packets alone.

How do I connect to a ZeroTier network?

You'll be able to get into the ZeroTier network once you launch the software.

To connect to a ZeroTier network: Click on the Network tab in the top-left corner of the ZeroTier window and enter the network name. Click on the Connect button in the bottom-left corner of the window. If prompted, click on the button in the bottom-left corner of the window. You're now connected to the ZeroTier network! How do I add an additional node to a ZeroTier network? You'll be able to add an additional node to the network once you launch the software. To add an additional node to the ZeroTier network: Click on the Add Node button in the bottom-left corner of the window. You'll see a list of networks that the ZeroTier service is currently aware of. Select the network name you wish to add and click the Add button. You'll see a list of nodes in the network. Select the node you wish to add and click the Add button.

What if I don't want to use the ZeroTier software? You can still add and manage nodes in your ZeroTier network from the ZeroTier Management Console using the CLI. How do I install and use the ZeroTier CLI? ZeroTier CLI provides all of the functionality provided by the ZeroTier GUI, but without having to launch a browser. The CLI is fully self-contained and you'll not need to download any extra software.