Rooms

What a room is

In the public network every account sees only its own devices. A room opens a door between accounts: you have five devices, a friend has five, you create a room, and the devices each of you ticks in it see each other and talk directly — on every port, in both directions. Your other devices stay isolated, and so do your friend's.

• A room has an owner (whoever created it) and members.
• Inside a room there are no limits: any number of members and devices.
• People get in with an invite link or by the room name and a password.

Create a room

1. Open Public network and scroll to Rooms.
2. Press Create room, type the Room name — 1 to 40 characters — and press Create room in the form.
3. The room's page opens. Tick your devices and invite people.

Room names are unique across mesh-net, regardless of letter case: if the name is taken, pick another one.

Choose your devices

Each member decides which of their own devices take part. On the room's page, under My devices in this room, tick the devices and press Save. Unticked devices stay isolated from the room; you can change the choice at any time.

Only your devices in the public network can be added. A device you delete from the public network leaves all its rooms automatically.

Invite links

The owner creates links: Invite at the top of the room's page opens the form — choose the Kind and press Create link. The active links are listed under Invite links.

• After Create link the page shows the link with a Copy link icon: send it to the person you're inviting.
• The full link can be copied only in the session where it was created — mesh-net keeps only a fingerprint of it, so a leak of our data doesn't give working links. After you sign out (automatic sign-out included), in another browser, or after ten newer links, the list still shows the link and lets you revoke it, but not copy it — create a new one if needed.
• The list of active links shows each link's kind, how long it works and how many joined with it.
• The bin in a link's row (Revoke) switches the link off at once; people who already joined stay in the room.

Join by a link

1. Open the link. If you're not logged in, log in first — you come back to the link afterwards.
2. The page shows the room name and its owner (the email is partly hidden). Tick the devices that should take part — or none: you can choose them later.
3. Press Join. The room's page opens.

If the page says the link is not valid, it was revoked, has expired or was already used (a one-time link). Ask the owner for a new one.

Join by name and password

A second way in, handy when it's easier to say two words than to send a link.

The owner turns it on

1. On the room's page, under Join by name and password, press Turn on, enter a password of at least 8 characters and press Turn on in the form that opens.
2. Tell the room name and the password to the people you invite.
3. Change password sets a new one; Turn off disables this way in. Links keep working either way.

A member joins

1. On Public network press Join a room; in the Join by name and password form enter the Room name and the Password and press Join.
2. The room's page opens: tick your devices there.

A wrong name and a wrong password give the same answer, so nobody can find out which rooms exist. After 5 failed attempts within 15 minutes (per account and per address) joining is locked for a while.

Members and what they see

• Members and their devices lists everyone in the room. Other members' emails are partly hidden; the room's devices are shown with their names, 100.x addresses (click to copy) and online/offline status — that's what a member needs to reach them.
• To reach a device of another member, use its address from this list, for example ssh user@100.64.0.9.
• The owner can remove a member with Remove; their devices lose access to the room.

Room limit

The limit is per account, not per room: rooms you created and rooms you joined both count. The Free plan allows 3 rooms, the Paid plan 20. The counter next to Rooms shows the use, like Rooms 1/3. At the limit, creating and joining are disabled: leave or delete a room first.

Leave or delete a room

• A member leaves with Leave room at the bottom of the room's page; their devices lose access to it.
• The owner can't leave a room, only delete it: Delete room. Members and links go with it, and the members' devices stop seeing each other.
• When an account is deleted, its rooms are deleted, and it leaves the rooms of others.

Devices in a room can't reach each other

• Both devices must be ticked in the room — by their owners — and be online.
• A room with a single device has nothing to connect: the access appears once a second device joins.
• A message that the network hasn't applied the new rules yet means the change is saved and mesh-net keeps retrying; it usually takes effect within a minute.
• The room opens the network, not the services: the device's own firewall still has to allow the connection, and the service has to listen on the Tailscale address (or on all addresses).