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Andrij Zyniuk
Andrij Zyniuk

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LAN for games on Linux

This is my first piece of writing, and I would appreciate feedback to help improve my writing structure for future posts. I created this explanation for my less technically savvy (not smart) friends who often need clarification on this subject. It will also be interesting to hear about problems and solutions to make it easier for people to read this post.


Many gamers prefer local area network (LAN) gaming, whether it's reminiscing about the old days of playing Quake 3 Arena, C&C Generals, etc. On Linux, due to its openness and support for many networking tools, you can find some great LAN clients for gaming.


The most popular programme | ZeroTier ❤️

Its main advantage is its ease of use, unlike its Windows-based counterparts, and its cross-platform nature.
Its main drawback is that your friends, unless they're Linux-ers, probably won't want to download it because of the lack of fancy interfaces like Radmin VPN and lack of understanding of how to create networks in the future. Also - need to register, limit of 25 devices

You can download it from the official website, I think you know how to use Google and there is no need to describe how to install it for each system 🫶.

After installation, if you have Windows, its icon will appear in the tray, on Linux it will not and you will have to work with it only through the console.


Firstly you need to create your network, this is done on their website after registration, behind this lovely button
Lovely button


In the list below, you can manage your networks. What we're interested in here is the network ID, you can copy it and send it to your friends.
List


That's the only thing the average person might be interested in setting up,
Settings :)


Basic commands for the linux client, you need to have these commands run in the console as sudo
(For more information & error codes you can visit Docs):

sudo zerotier-cli status
sudo zerotier-cli join \ leave <NID>
sudo zerotier-cli listnetworks
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Your LAN IP will be output after calling listnetworks.

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