Subnet routers and exit nodes
Reach a whole office network or VPC through one machine, and send a device's internet traffic out through a server you trust.
Endi · 1 min readUntil now, a device on your network could reach the other devices on it, and nothing else. That covers most of what people need, but not the printer in the office, the database in a VPC you can't install an app on, or a laptop on hotel Wi-Fi that should browse from somewhere safer. Two new features handle those.
Subnet routers
A subnet router is a Linux machine on a network you want to reach. It offers that network's addresses to the rest of your workspace, and once an admin approves the route, every device can reach them as if it were there.
$ sudo ./tailnet set --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24Approve the route on the Routes page and it's live within seconds. Devices that are already on that network keep reaching it directly instead of going through the router.
Exit nodes
An exit node carries a device's internet traffic, so it leaves from there. Offer a machine as one, approve it, then pick it on the device: in the Windows tray menu, or from the command line.
$ sudo ./tailnet set --advertise-exit-node$ tailnet set --exit-node=my-server
If the exit node goes offline, the device sends traffic out directly again and says why, rather than leaving you without a connection.
With access rules
If your workspace has access rules, name a subnet like 192.168.1.0/24, or autogroup:internet for exit nodes, as a destination for the people who should use them. Without rules, everyone in the workspace can use any approved route.
- Routers and exit nodes need to be Linux machines for now.
- Every device can use them, Windows included.
- Routes only work once an admin approves them, so a machine can't quietly start routing for others.