Rulik RU

Getting started

Over the internet

Rulik works away from home too, if the PC and the phone are on one virtual network. Tailscale is the easiest: free and set up in five minutes.

How it works

At home the phone finds the PC by itself: they share one Wi-Fi network. Away from home there's no such network, and the PC can't be seen from the internet. A virtual network (Tailscale or ZeroTier) links the PC and the phone as if they were next to each other again.

Rulik recognises these networks by itself. Connect to the PC at home at least once, and the server tells the phone its virtual network address. After that the phone finds the PC through it and connects without typing an address or a PIN.

Tailscale in five minutes

  1. Install Tailscale on the PC and sign in (Google, Microsoft, GitHub or email).
  2. Install the Tailscale app on the phone and sign in to the same account.
  3. Turn Tailscale on on both devices.
  4. Connect Rulik at home as usual. In the server window the 100.x.x.x address gets an "over the internet" tag.
  5. Away from home, turn Tailscale on on the phone and open Rulik: the PC shows up in the list as "over the internet, Tailscale".
Windows may treat the Tailscale network as public. If the phone doesn't connect, press "Firewall" in the server window.

Other networks

Besides Tailscale, ZeroTier works on the phone: Rulik recognises it by itself. Radmin VPN has no Android app, and Hamachi for phones hasn't been updated in years, so they don't work with Rulik. If the network isn't recognised, type the PC's address on that network by hand on the PC tab.

Limits

  • Android runs only one VPN at a time. Tailscale and ZeroTier are VPNs on the phone, so they won't work together with another VPN or an anti-censorship app.
  • In Russia the WireGuard protocol that Tailscale is built on is sometimes blocked. Tailscale then routes traffic through its own servers: controls still work, the picture is slower. ZeroTier uses its own protocol and may work better there.

What to expect

  • Controls (gamepad, mouse, keyboard) almost always work well: they need only tens of kilobits.
  • The picture needs fast, steady internet on both ends. Over the internet the stream starts at 6 Mbit/s and lowers the bitrate by itself if the link can't keep up.
  • Latency depends on distance and the network. Press "Check the network" on the PC tab: if bad moments go above 60–80 ms, stick to slower games.
  • Mobile data adds up: an hour of streaming at 6 Mbit/s is about 2.7 GB.

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