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Mole reading FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General​

What is Muti Metroo?​

Muti Metroo is a userspace mesh networking agent that creates virtual TCP tunnels across different transport protocols. It enables multi-hop routing with SOCKS5 proxy ingress and CIDR-based exit routing.

Do I need root to run Muti Metroo?​

No. Muti Metroo runs entirely in userspace. However, you may need root for:

  • Ports below 1024
  • Installing as a system service
  • Setting capabilities

What platforms are supported?​

  • Linux (amd64, arm64)
  • macOS (amd64, arm64)
  • Windows (amd64)

What Go version is required?​

Go 1.23 or later for building from source.

Networking​

What transport should I use?​

Use CaseRecommended
Best performanceQUIC
Corporate firewallHTTP/2 or WebSocket
Through HTTP proxyWebSocket
Maximum compatibilityWebSocket

See Transports for details.

How many hops can I have?​

Theoretically, up to 255 (max_hops). Practically, limit to:

  • 8-12 for interactive use (SSH)
  • 6-10 for streaming
  • 4-6 for high-latency WAN

Can I mix transport types?​

Yes. Each peer connection can use a different transport:

peers:
  - transport: quic
    address: "direct-peer:4433"
  - transport: ws
    address: "wss://proxy-peer:443/mesh"

Does Muti Metroo support IPv6?​

Yes. IPv6 is supported for:

  • Listener addresses
  • Peer addresses
  • Exit routes

Security​

How is traffic encrypted?​

All peer connections use TLS 1.3 with:

  • AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption
  • ECDHE key exchange
  • Perfect forward secrecy

Is mutual TLS (mTLS) required?​

No, but it's recommended for production. Without mTLS, any client can connect if they can reach the port.

Can I use Let's Encrypt certificates?​

Yes, for listeners. However, you'll also need:

  • A CA for signing client certificates (for mTLS)
  • Agent certificates signed by your CA

How do I rotate certificates?​

  1. Generate new certificates before old ones expire
  2. Deploy new certificates
  3. Restart agents
  4. Remove old certificates

See TLS Certificates for details.

SOCKS5​

What SOCKS5 features are supported?​

  • CONNECT command: Yes
  • BIND: No
  • UDP ASSOCIATE: No
  • IPv4/IPv6: Yes
  • Domain names: Yes
  • No auth: Yes
  • Username/password: Yes

Can I use SOCKS5 with browsers?​

Yes. Configure your browser's proxy settings:

  • SOCKS Host: localhost (or agent address)
  • Port: 1080 (or configured port)
  • SOCKS version: 5

How do I use SOCKS5 with SSH?​

ssh -o ProxyCommand='nc -x localhost:1080 %h %p' user@host

Or in ~/.ssh/config:

Host myhost
  ProxyCommand nc -x localhost:1080 %h %p

Performance​

How much memory does Muti Metroo use?​

Base memory plus:

  • 256 KB per stream per hop (default buffer)

Example: 1000 streams x 3 hops x 256 KB = 768 MB

How fast is Muti Metroo?​

Throughput depends on:

  • Network speed between hops
  • Number of hops
  • Transport type (QUIC is fastest)
  • Buffer size

Latency overhead:

  • LAN: 1-5ms per hop
  • WAN: 50-200ms per hop

Can I run multiple agents on one machine?​

Yes. Use different:

  • Data directories
  • Port numbers
  • Agent IDs

Configuration​

Can I reload configuration without restart?​

Currently, no. Restart the agent to apply configuration changes.

How do I use environment variables?​

agent:
  log_level: "${LOG_LEVEL:-info}"

socks5:
  auth:
    users:
      - username: "${USER}"
        password_hash: "${PASS_HASH}"

Where should I put the configuration file?​

  • Development: ./config.yaml
  • Production: /etc/muti-metroo/config.yaml
  • Docker: /app/config.yaml

Deployment​

How do I run Muti Metroo as a service?​

# Linux
sudo ./muti-metroo service install -c /etc/muti-metroo/config.yaml
sudo systemctl enable --now muti-metroo

# Windows (as Administrator)
muti-metroo.exe service install -c C:\config\config.yaml

Can I run Muti Metroo in Docker?​

Yes. See Docker Deployment.

Can I run Muti Metroo in Kubernetes?​

Yes. See Kubernetes Deployment.

Troubleshooting​

How do I enable debug logging?​

agent:
  log_level: "debug"

Or at runtime:

./muti-metroo run -c config.yaml --log-level debug

How do I check if agents are connected?​

curl http://localhost:8080/healthz | jq '.peers'

How do I check routes?​

curl http://localhost:8080/healthz | jq '.routes'

Where are the logs?​

  • Foreground: stderr
  • systemd: journalctl -u muti-metroo
  • Docker: docker logs <container>

How do I get help?​

  1. Check this documentation
  2. Enable debug logging and review logs
  3. Search existing issues
  4. Open a new issue with:
    • Configuration (redacted)
    • Logs
    • Steps to reproduce

Features​

Can I execute commands on remote agents?​

Yes, using RPC:

muti-metroo rpc agent-id whoami

RPC must be enabled and configured. See RPC.

Can I transfer files?​

Yes:

# Upload
muti-metroo upload agent-id ./local.txt /remote/path.txt

# Download
muti-metroo download agent-id /remote/path.txt ./local.txt

File transfer must be enabled. See File Transfer.

Is there a web interface?​

Yes. Access the dashboard at:

http://localhost:8080/ui/

See Web Dashboard.

Can I get Prometheus metrics?​

Yes. Metrics are available at:

http://localhost:8080/metrics

See Metrics.

Next Steps​