Documentation
LAN gaming over VPN: the mesh that actually broadcasts
You launch an old LAN game, your friends are on the same VPN, and yet the "local games" screen stays empty. It's not the game's fault: it's the broadcast layer that ordinary VPNs drop. VIGIL-MESH makes every network a real broadcast domain — encrypted broadcast and multicast cross the mesh as if on a switch, and the matches show up on their own.
Why your LAN games are invisible through an ordinary VPN
On a local network, a LAN game needs no address to type in: the host announces its match "to everyone on the link", over broadcast or multicast, and the other machines discover it on their own. All the magic of a LAN — the match that appears, the printer that announces itself, the TV that shows up — rests on that local broadcast.
An ordinary VPN, by contrast, routes packets from one address to another. Broadcast and multicast have no single destination: the VPN doesn't know what to do with them and silently drops them. As a result, machines reach each other just fine by address, but everything that relies on automatic discovery is blind.
- Classic LAN games show no match at all — the host's announcement never arrives.
- Discovery tools (network browsing, neighborhood, local lobbies) stay empty.
- The usual workarounds — typing the IP address by hand, when the game even allows it — break the "it just works" experience of a LAN.
The Hamachi legacy: why it was loved, and where it falls short
For years, Hamachi was gamers' reflex answer: it created a virtual network that let LAN discovery through, and that is exactly why it was so loved. Let's say it plainly — the need it identified is the right one.
But if you're looking for a Hamachi alternative today, it's probably for well-known, well-documented reasons:
- An aging product, whose evolution has largely slowed over the years.
- A free tier limited in the number of peers per network — quickly reached once the group of friends grows.
- A dependency on third-party servers for connection setup, over which you have no control.
VIGIL-MESH takes the right idea — a virtual network where LAN discovery works — and rebuilds it on modern foundations: an end-to-end encrypted mesh, peer-to-peer whenever possible, free for personal use.
What VIGIL-MESH does: a real broadcast domain, encrypted
Every VIGIL network is a logical broadcast domain: broadcast and multicast reach every member as if they were plugged into the same switch, wherever they physically sit. The match announcement sent by the host crosses the encrypted mesh and lands on every player's machine — the "local games" screen fills up exactly as it does in the living room.
And that broadcast is never in the clear: multicast is encrypted with rotating per-sender keys, and the relay replicates packets to receivers without ever being able to read them. You play "on the LAN" across the internet, but nobody along the path sees your traffic.
The same mechanism serves well beyond gaming: everything that discovers itself on a local network discovers itself on your VIGIL network.
LAN games
Match and lobby discovery on the local segment: the host's announcement reaches every member of the network, just like on a physical LAN.
Printers and shares
Printer discovery over mDNS/Bonjour crosses the mesh: a printer announced at one home is discovered at the other.
Media streaming
SSDP and mDNS announcements from TVs, media boxes and DLNA- or Chromecast-style casting targets flow as if on a single cable.
Latency: a direct path whenever one exists
For gaming, the path matters as much as the discovery. VIGIL-MESH establishes a direct peer-to-peer path between players whenever one exists: your game packets go from one machine to the other with no detour forced by a central server.
When the connection starts through the relay — while the direct path is being found — the migration to direct happens without interruption: the ongoing match notices nothing, no disconnect and no renegotiation.
- Direct peer-to-peer path preferred as soon as it is available.
- Migration from relay to direct with no session interruption.
- No inbound port to open: every member connects outbound, at your place and at your friends'.
Get started in four steps
- 1Create an accountOpen a VIGIL-MESH account — free for personal use. A workspace is created for you: that will be your group's network.
- 2Install the clientInstall the client on your gaming machine — Windows, Linux or Android — and sign in. Your machine joins the network and receives its address.
- 3Invite your friendsInvite the other players into your workspace. Each one installs the client, accepts the invitation, and everyone ends up on the same broadcast domain.
- 4Launch the gameHost a match in LAN mode, as if you were in the same room. On everyone else's screen, it appears in the local games list — all that's left is to join.
No network configuration, no address to dictate over the phone, no router tweaking: discovery does the work, just like on a real LAN.