Getting Started with ZeroTier

Getting Started

There are a few things we need to do first:

  1. Download and install ZeroTier for your OS from https://www.zerotier.com/download.shtml.
  2. Head over to https://my.zerotier.com and create an account in our network management portal.

Creating your first network

Now that you have the client installed, and your account created, it's time to create your first network.  Things you'll need:

  1. Your account on https://my.zerotier.com
  2. Two or more computers to join to a network.

On https://my.zerotier.com, click the "Networks" buttton on the top of the screen:

 Then click the "Create" button"

This will create a new private ZeroTier network and it will show up on the page like so:

The 16-digit hexadecimal code is your Network ID.  In this example, it's 159924d6307d7121. Your actual network ID will be different. This network ID is what you'll use to join your devices to the network from the ZeroTier Client.  See Join a Network for instructions on using the ZeroTier Client to join the network.

Once your machines are joined, click on the network you just created in your web browser.  This will take you to the network configuration page.  There are a lot of settings on this page, but at this point you don't need to worry about most of them.  All we're concerned with right now is authorizing the computers you're adding to the network.   Scroll down the page to the Members section.  The 2 devices you've tried to join to the network will be listed there:

Click the check boxes under the Auth? column, and they will be authorized to join the network.  Once authorized, they'll be able to communicate with each other on the IP addresses listed in the Managed IPs column.

That's all there is to it to get started.

There are a LOT of settings for configuring your network.  For simple networks, you can leave almost all of these settings alone and everything will work out of the box.

Next Steps

Use the Managed IPs to communicate as if your devices were on the same network.


It's working, but it seems kind of slow?

See the Router Configuration Tips article to optimize your peer to peer connections.