Reaching it from anywhere
Discovery works by Bonjour, so it finds your Mac where broadcast reaches — the same network. To use your Mac from somewhere else, you give the app an address instead.
The manual address field
In Settings → Mac offload, you can set an address by hand. It accepts:
| Form | Example |
|---|---|
| Host | mac.example |
| Host and port | mac.example:42217 |
| IPv6 | [fd00::1] |
| IPv6 and port | [fd00::1]:42217 |
Port 42217 is used when you do not give one.
The app tries discovery first and falls back to the address, so a single setup works both at home and away.
Point it through your own VPN
The sound way to reach your Mac from elsewhere is a VPN you run — WireGuard, Tailscale, your router's built-in server, whatever you already trust. Set the manual address to the one your Mac has on that VPN, and it works from anywhere the VPN reaches.
The pairing code still authenticates the connection, and the post-quantum handshake still runs inside it. The VPN only decides how the packets get there.
Why we do not do this part for you
We run no relay and no rendezvous service. That is a deliberate trade, and it cuts both ways:
- What you get: nothing to sign up for, no list of your devices on anyone's server, and no company in the middle of your traffic.
- What it costs: reaching your Mac from outside your own network is something you set up, rather than something that works the moment you install the app.
Products that make this effortless do it by putting their own infrastructure in the path and an account around it. That is a reasonable trade for many people. It is not the one this app makes.
What not to do
Do not forward port 42217 from your router to your Mac. It would work, and it would expose a service on your home machine to the entire internet, defended only by your pairing code. A VPN costs about the same effort and does not.