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What is this?
ZeroTier is a smart programmable Ethernet switch: it makes your devices, VMs, containers, and apps talk to each other as if they all lived in the same data center or cloud region, wherever they physically are.
ZeroTier is a smart programmable Ethernet switch: it makes your devices, VMs, containers, and apps talk to each other as if they all lived in the same data center or cloud region, wherever they physically are.Is this an app I install, or a service hosted for me?It is software you install on every device you want to connect: a background network service on machines, plus free Android and iOS apps in the Google Play and Apple app stores.
It is software you install on every device you want to connect: a background network service on machines, plus free Android and iOS apps in the Google Play and Apple app stores.How do I get it running on my devices?Follow the ZeroTier documentation, which links downloads and installation for each platform; to compile from source, build.md covers build instructions and platform requirements.
Follow the ZeroTier documentation, which links downloads and installation for each platform; to compile from source, build.md covers build instructions and platform requirements.What happens when two devices cannot connect directly?Traffic has to be relayed through ZeroTier's infrastructure instead — that relaying is free, but slow, so direct peer-to-peer paths are the fast case.
Traffic has to be relayed through ZeroTier's infrastructure instead — that relaying is free, but slow, so direct peer-to-peer paths are the fast case.Is the traffic between my devices actually private?Yes — all ZeroTier traffic is encrypted end-to-end with secret keys only you control, and most of it flows directly peer-to-peer between your devices rather than through a middleman.
Yes — all ZeroTier traffic is encrypted end-to-end with secret keys only you control, and most of it flows directly peer-to-peer between your devices rather than through a middleman.Is the whole codebase open source?Mostly: the core (node/, osdep/, service/) is under the MPL, but the repository also contains non-free, source-available code under nonfree/, and code in ext/ keeps its original license.
Mostly: the core (node/, osdep/, service/) is under the MPL, but the repository also contains non-free, source-available code under nonfree/, and code in ext/ keeps its original license.What are VL1 and VL2?VL1 is ZeroTier's cryptographically addressed, secure peer-to-peer network that carries packets between devices; VL2 is the Ethernet emulation layer, similar in spirit to VXLAN, that your virtual networks run on top of.
VL1 is ZeroTier's cryptographically addressed, secure peer-to-peer network that carries packets between devices; VL2 is the Ethernet emulation layer, similar in spirit to VXLAN, that your virtual networks run on top of.Can I control which devices are allowed to talk to each other inside a network?Yes — the VL2 virtual Ethernet layer includes enterprise SDN features such as fine-grained access control rules, so you can micro-segment networks and use them for security monitoring.
Yes — the VL2 virtual Ethernet layer includes enterprise SDN features such as fine-grained access control rules, so you can micro-segment networks and use them for security monitoring.Is there a paid or hosted side to ZeroTier beyond this free software?Yes — the README links to a corporate site, a network controller, a service API reference, and commercial support alongside the free community software and free (slow) relaying.
Yes — the README links to a corporate site, a network controller, a service API reference, and commercial support alongside the free community software and free (slow) relaying.Which topics is it in?overlay, mesh-network, peer-to-peer, remote-access, tunnel, decentralized, virtualization, vpn, sysadmin, encryption, cpp, c++
overlay, mesh-network, peer-to-peer, remote-access, tunnel, decentralized, virtualization, vpn, sysadmin, encryption, cpp, c++