Getting Started with the Nettica VPN Service

Our templated configurations work out of the box, allowing you to create and connect devices effortlessly. It only takes a few minutes to create your first WireGuard VPN, not hours or days. To learn more about our architecture, check out our overview. You can complete this tutorial without making any purchases. We offer more for free than most provide to their paying customers.

To sign up with Nettica, click “Login” from the menu above. There’s a link to sign-up on the login page if you don’t have an account. You may be asked to verify your email address. However, you can log in with your Google or Microsoft account and it will automatically create an account as needed. It’s also one less password to remember.

Creating Your First Network

A virtual private network (VPN) is a collection of devices that can securely communicate with one another. Creating a network is quick and easy. Log in to the Nettica Admin and then click on the Networks tab. You’ll see a blue banner that automatically creates your first network. Click it. You can then click on the network in the left-hand pane to review its properties in the right-hand pane.

Install Nettica Agent

Install the Nettica Agent for Windows, Debian distros, or Fedora Linux distributions. In this tutorial, we will install the Agent on two devices. This could be your desktop and your laptop, in the cloud with one of our pre-built images, or even with a Raspberry Pi you might have lying around. If you are interested in subnet routing (eg, accessing your entire home network remotely), then you will want to use Linux for one of the devices. If nothing else, you can spin up a small VM or container on your desktop machine (with bridged mode networking).

Creating a Device

If your host doesn’t have a GUI (eg, Linux server) then follow these instructions on adding a device manually. Otherwise, log in to the host and launch the Nettica Agent using the icon on your desktop. On Linux, you can find it under Internet on the Applications menu, or the Applications page.

Click Login and sign in using the same credentials you used previously. Click “Join Network” and fill in the form.

Join Network on Nettica Agent

If the device you’re adding is only to be used as a client (for example, a laptop), then you can skip the public endpoint field. Otherwise, if you know your public IP enter it, followed by :51820. However, if you don’t know your IP address or this is for a home server, enter 1.2.3.4:51820 and toggle Enable UPnP. If this is a cloud endpoint, enter 1.2.3.4:51820 and toggle Sync Endpoint. Our pre-built VMs come with UDP port 51820 open. Update any security groups or firewalls as necessary. Click Submit.

Congratulations! You have successfully added your first device to your VPN. However, a VPN needs at least two machines, so repeat the process and launch another instance on a different machine.

You should then be able to open a terminal and ping 10.10.10.1 (the instance created above will have this IP address). If you have any difficulties, contact Nettica Support and we will be more than happy to help! You can also chat with us by clicking below (when available).

Related Reading

Launch a Cloud Instance

Discover How to Create a WireGuard VPN Using a Raspberry Pi

Setting up Nettica Tunnel and Relay Services

Using Docker and WSL2 to Enable Subnet Routing