Tailscale Setup & Stable IPs

~12 min · tailscale, stable-ip, cgnat-range

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Each device gets a stable IP

Once Tailscale is up on a device, it gets a permanent IP in the 100.64.0.0/10 range — formally CGNAT space, but Tailscale uses it for tailnet addresses. The IP doesn't change when the device moves between networks. Bake it into SSH configs, scripts, bookmarks; it survives reboots, network changes, even reinstalls (as long as you sign in with the same account).

Code

Setup essentials·bash

# Find your tailnet IP
tailscale ip -4

# All devices on your tailnet
tailscale status

# Bring it up with options
sudo tailscale up --hostname=office --accept-routes --ssh
# --hostname    name to register as on the tailnet
# --accept-routes  let advertised subnets in (we'll cover this later)
# --ssh         enable Tailscale SSH (lesson 9)

# Bring it down without forgetting account
tailscale down

# Forget account entirely
sudo tailscale logout

Use it from another device·bash

# By tailnet IP
ping 100.64.0.1
ssh you_username@100.64.0.1

# By short hostname (MagicDNS — next lesson)
ping office
ssh office

External links

Tailscale docs: tailscale up

Exercise

On every machine in your fleet (Mac, Linux, even phones), install Tailscale and join the tailnet. Run tailscale status from one device to see the whole fleet listed. Note each device's 100.64.x.y IP — that's the address you'll use in SSH configs and scripts going forward.