Use Zerotier to connect remote devices to a local area network

Now that we are working from home due to the pandemic, we often need to interact with the company's remote network or computer. frp can only forward ports, and the configuration is also a bit troublesome. If you need to build an intranet with the company's computers, zerotier will come in handy.

Register a zerotier account

Open https://my.zerotier.com/ and click Register. You can register with your normal email address. After logging in, you will see this interface.

Creating a network

Click on the prominent "Create A Network" and a network will be created automatically by default. Remember the "NETWORK ID" as it will be needed later.

Generating the default is enough. If you need a more detailed network configuration, such as changing the network segment, you can click in to configure it.

Install the client

Here we take two Windows devices as an example, download the corresponding client from https://www.zerotier.com/download page and then install it. After installation, the zerotier logo will appear in the tray in the lower right corner of the system.

Join Subnet

Input ID

Right-click the zerotier logo in the tray and select "Open control panel" to open the panel. The left panel displays "Online" to indicate that the connection with Zerotier's server is successful. Fill in the subnet "NETWORK ID" created on the Zerotine website in the first step in the middle to join the subnet.

The program will create a new virtual network card

• Agree to device inclusion on the zerotier website

• Perform the above operations on all devices that need to form an intranet

After all are added, the IP will be displayed. This IP is the Zerotier LAN IP assigned to each device. They can ping each other. The LAN is successfully established, and the LAN gameplay is also unlocked, such as remote desktop connection, etc.

principle

The principle is to punch holes with UDP and build a P2P network. The role of Zerotier server is to notify the public IP of the device to each device, and try to let each party punch holes with each other. If the hole punching is successful, the connection is successful. As for the network quality, it depends on the operator. Due to the special network environment in China (restricting UDP), it is easy to encounter the situation of hole punching failure. It is normal to fail to connect even if you follow the tutorial. Just get used to it. The next section will talk about building Moon by yourself, trying to punch holes by handshake with Moon or forwarding all traffic through Moon.