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FAQ

Minimum System Requirements​

ZeroTier is lightweight, portable, and compatible across all major platforms and architectures. It typically consumes less than 16 MB of memory, only about 1 MB of storage, and even has a low-bandwidth mode for IoT applications. It supports 32-bit ARM (arm32), 64-bit ARM (arm64), 32-bit Intel (x86), 64-bit Intel (x64/amd64), MIPS, and s390x. You can run it on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and FreeBSD. You can run it on Routers, Network Attached Storage, and we have solutions for when you can't install ZeroTier on a small IoT sensor.

  • Our most recent client can still be run on tiny single-board computers like the original Raspberry Pi made over a decade ago and all versions of ZeroTier are backwards compatible.

  • ZeroTier is currently single-threaded so devices with more than two cores typically will not offer significant performance gains. Future versions of ZeroTier will introduce multithreading.

  • While ZeroTier will operate on very low-power hardware (e.g. a single core 32-Bit ARM running at 600Mhz without AES hardware acceleration (AES-NI)), its performance will suffer.

We recommend the following for a happy ZeroTier experience: >=1GHz CPU with at least 2 cores, and AES-NI.

ARM

If you're planning on embedding ZeroTier in a product such as a router, network attached storage or some other IoT application we see that our partners have a better experience with 64-bit ARM as opposed to 32-bit ARM since the core speeds are typically higher and the chips are more likely to have AES-NI.

What happens if a ZeroTier, Inc root goes down?​

Our roots are globally distributed and redundant, if one fails requests will seamlessly fail-over to other roots.

If you are running your own roots the effect would be that no new connections can be established between nodes but existing connections would still work.

Can ZeroTier, Inc. See my traffic?​

No. Your traffic is end-to-end encrypted and your device's private identity keys are never transmitted off of your device. Learn more about our cryptograph protocol.

Metrics and Monitoring​

ZeroTier Inc doesn't have access to your traffic. We don't currently supply a monitoring "dashboard" for your networks and nodes. You can build your own!

Why does my peers list have nodes I don't recognize?​

The nodes are usually our infrastructure that your node needs to talk to in order to function. This includes things like: Root servers and Controllers. Or possibly nodes from a previously joined network. The command zerotier-cli peers shows a list of nodes that your node knows about. Nodes can not talk to each other unless they are joined and authorized on the same network. Our root servers and controllers do not have access to you nodes' encryption keys and thus cannot decrypt your traffic.

How to identify a controller

A controller is a ZeroTier node. The first 10 digits of a Network ID is the controller's address.

What is error NOT_FOUND?​

When your ZeroTier Client is showing NOT_FOUND as your network status, this usually means that you've entered your network ID incorrectly and are trying to join a non-existent network. Please check your network ID and try again.

High Latency & Relaying​

If you're experiencing high latency (or high ping times), it's possible the connection between two nodes is being Relayed. The command zerotier-cli peers (available in 1.4.x and above) will give you information on what if any connections are being relayed. The output will look something like this:

[root@host] # zerotier-cli peers
<ztaddr>   <ver>  <role> <lat> <link> <lastTX> <lastRX> <path>
61d294b9cb -      PLANET    43 DIRECT 1617     6580     50.7.73.34/9993
62f865ae71 -      PLANET   193 DIRECT 1617     1424     2001:49f0:d0db:2::2/9993
6xxxxxxxx1 1.6.4  LEAF     730 DIRECT 8714     8714     35.222.83.92/62191
778cde7190 -      PLANET    76 DIRECT 1617     11607    103.195.103.66/9993
992fcf1db7 -      PLANET   163 DIRECT 6623     1454     2a02:6ea0:c024::/9993
deadbeef01 1.6.4  LEAF      -1 RELAY

If you see the peer you're trying to contact in the RELAY state, that means packets are bouncing through our root servers because a direct connection between peers cannot be established. Side effects of RELAYING are increased latency and possible packet loss. See Router Configuration Tips for how to resolve this.

tip

If you experience high latency or packet jitter for more than four hours please contact your network admin as this may be a sign of a serious network condition.

Bandwidth considerations​

In the best case scenario, and in most cases, ZeroTier connects peer-to-peer and none of your network traffic travels through our servers. This means transfers go as fast as your CPU & network can compress, encrypt and send packets, and how fast the remote end can receive them.

There are some cases, such as hostile NATs & firewalls in which your encrypted packets do indeed get relayed through our root servers. Relaying through our root adds latency. The packets must travel farther physically than they would for a direct, peer to peer connection.

We do not throttle any of these packets, nor can we read the contents of the packets due to encryption. We also, however, cannot guarantee connection reliability when this happens. We do our best effort to get your packets where they need to go, but this is not always possible.

Considerations:

  • CPU speed. The current version of zerotier-one is single threaded. Raw CPU speed is important in high bandwidth use cases.
  • Physical Internet connection. ZeroTier can only go as fast as the physical connection it's running over.
  • Hardware Encryption. ZeroTier uses hardware AES acceleration when available. Most current ARM and x86_64 platforms have AES acceleration.
  • Geographic distance. If your remote peer is on a different continent, there will be latency. We can't improve the speed of light.
tip

If you are experiencing slow network speeds or difficulty making direct connections see See Router Configuration Tips or Corporate Firewalls

Will transfers go faster on paid accounts?​

ZeroTier performance is not at all related to your account or subscription level. You may be able to change things on your end to enable faster connections between peers.

Error: Cannot connect to Zerotier service​

This error means that the ZeroTier background service on your computer is either not running, or your local firewall is preventing the UI or CLI from talking to it.

Windows​

Open Task Manager and go to the "Services" tab. Scroll down until you see ZeroTierOneService. The status column should say Running. If it does not, right click on the line and click Start

macOS​

Open Terminal.app and execute the following commands

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.zerotier.one.plist
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.zerotier.one.plist

Linux​

If your Linux distribution uses systemd, execute sudo service zerotier-one start

If not, execute sudo /etc/init.d/zerotier-one start

Still doesn't work?​

Your system firewall is likely blocking communication with the ZeroTier service. Look up instructions for how to unblock an application from the firewall for your OS. ZeroTier will need to be accessible via TCP port 9993 for the UI and CLI to interact with it.

Tray / Menubar App crashes​

  • go into your user config directory
  • delete authtoken.secret
  • go into the "One" directory from there
  • delete the authtoken.secret in the "One" directory
  • restart the app

Where can I find old versions of ZeroTier?​

See Releases

What is Earth?​

Earth or 8056c2e21c000001 was a test network operated by ZeroTier, Inc., it was decommissioned in 2023.

How do I Update Zerotier?​

When you update ZeroTier, your configuration stays. You don't need to re-join your networks.

macOS and Windows​

Grab the latest version from the download page and run the installer

Linux​

Use your OS's package manager. eg apt on Debian based distributions, or yum or dnf on RedHat based distributions.

iOS and Android​

Use the respective app stores.

How to clear or reset your ZeroTier address​

If you would like to clear or reset ZeroTier's address on a device (the 10-digit address node ID) or you have cloned a device and you want to prevent it from using the same address, follow these steps in order:

Step 1. Stop the service​

On Windows​

On Windows this is done with the service manager. (Open the Start Menu and start typing "service")

On macOS​

On macOS you can open a terminal and use

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.zerotier.one.plist
On Linux​

This is usually

sudo systemctl stop zerotier-one

or

sudo service zerotier-one stop

Step 2. Delete the files identity.public and identity.secret from ZeroTier's working directory​

  • On Windows this is usually \ProgramData\ZeroTier\One
  • On Mac this is /Library/Application Support/ZeroTier/One in your terminal, type open /Library/Application Support/ZeroTier/One to open the folder in Finder.
  • On Linux this is usually /var/lib/zerotier-one

Step 3. Restart the service​

On Windows​

Starting via the service manager on Windows

On Mac​
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.zerotier.one.plist
On Linux​
sudo systemctl start zerotier-one

or

sudo service zerotier-one start

When started without identities ZeroTier will generate new ones. You will need to authorize this new identity on any networks.

Can't find an answer?

Ask our community for help

Next steps

Click here to create your network and start adding devices.