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Installing Tailscale

The one-sentence version: One install per device — a command on Linux, an installer on Windows/Mac, an app on phones — then every device signs into the same account.

Install it on every machine you want in your tailnet: your home server, your laptop, your phone, the Pi in the closet. The per-platform notes below say what was verified and what comes from the official docs.

Linux

The official one-liner (verified: fetched and run in this build environment — it detected the distro, added Tailscale's apt repository, and installed the client; tailscale version below is the real output from that install):

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

Then start the service and bring Tailscale up:

sudo systemctl enable --now tailscaled
sudo tailscale up

Check: the client is really installed and runs:

tailscale version

Verified output on the real client (your version number will differ — don't expect these exact lines):

1.104.1
  tailscale commit: 7f4efe814ff14b064eb080344389ceb9ea2d37ac
  long version: 1.104.1-t7f4efe814-g8da26756c
  other commit: 8da26756c9a2af700dfd05fa38d21b1eef2bcaa2
  go version: go1.27.1 (tailscale/go 24ee2fd061)

Before you log in, the client is honest about its state — verified outputs:

tailscale status

Logged out.

tailscale ip

no current Tailscale IPs; state: NeedsLogin

That's the expected "installed but not yet joined" state. Login is the next chapter.

Your distro may also package Tailscale itself (apt install tailscale, dnf install tailscale, etc. — from the official docs, not verified here). The install script is the safest default because it always pulls the current release.

Windows

Download the installer from Tailscale's official download page and run it — from the official docs, not verified in this build environment (no Windows box here). After installing, a Tailscale icon appears in the system tray; right-click it and sign in. Windows needs no terminal commands for the basics — tailscale status, tailscale ping, and friends do exist in a terminal if you want them.

Mac

Two options, from the official docs:

  • Mac App Store: install the Tailscale app, open it, sign in. Simplest path.
  • Standalone download: from the official download page; runs outside the App Store sandbox with a terminal-accessible CLI.

Not verified here (no Mac in this build environment). Either way, the post-install step is the same: sign in, and the Mac joins your tailnet.

iPhone and Android

Install Tailscale from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android) — from the official docs, not verified here. Open the app, sign in with the same account as your other devices, and flip the connect switch. Your phone is now on your tailnet: you can reach your home server's web UIs from the phone's browser by machine name, exactly like a laptop would.

One phone-specific note: mobile OSes aggressively sleep apps and cut background network access. If your phone shows as intermittently offline in the admin console, that's usually the phone napping, not a Tailscale fault.

After installing everywhere

Every device is currently in the "Logged out." state — installed, running, belonging to nothing. The next chapter joins them into one tailnet.

Next: Your First Tailnet