Verus Relay
Set up your Verus Relay
You have a box that will carry Verus calls between people without being able to hear them. Plug it in, scan the card that came with it and approve it on your phone. That is all.
- About 20 minutesmost of it waiting
- No settingsit configures itself
- Yoursadded to your account, removable any time
Before you start
Four things to have ready
Verus on your phone
Free, with nothing to sign up for. Get Verus.
Confrmo, with your passport checked
Only a person verified to passport level can own a relay. It is how the network knows every relay belongs to somebody real. Get Confrmo.
A free socket on your router
The box joins your internet with the network cable in the box, and needs a power socket nearby.
The card from the box
It has a QR code on it. That code is your relay's own Verus address, so keep the card with the box.
Setting it up
Six steps, in this order
Nothing here asks for a password, a router setting or an app on a computer.
-
1 minute
Plug it in
Connect the network cable from the box to a free socket on your router, then plug in the power. Put it somewhere it can stay: near the router, off the floor and not inside a cupboard.
-
About 15 minutes
Leave it alone for a quarter of an hour
The first time it starts, the box installs itself, updates and asks your router to open the one port calls use. There is nothing to watch. Do not unplug it while it does this.
-
1 minute
Scan the card
Point your phone's camera at the QR code on the card and open the link. Verus opens and adds the relay as a contact, like adding a person.
-
Within a minute
The relay messages you
A chat with your relay appears. It sends you a VCode, then a message with a check code. Tap the VCode.
Your Verus Relay Hi, I'm a Verus Relay waiting to be added.
Tap the VCode above and approve in Confrmo.
You should see this check code: 7F3A-91C2 Only a verified person can add me. This code works once, for ten minutes.The check code shown here is an example. Yours is worked out from your relay's own key.
-
10 seconds
Check the code matches
Verus shows a large check code. It must be the same as the one in the relay's message.
If the two codes are different, stop and do not approve. The code on your screen would then belong to a different box.
-
1 minute
Approve in Confrmo
Tap Approve with Confrmo and approve in the Confrmo app. Then come back to Verus. The relay names itself and says hello in the chat.
Your Verus Relay Hello, I've named myself Aurelia Verus. I'm your Verus relay box, Verus Relay - 007. I'll post updates here. Send "status" any time.That is it. It is carrying calls. You will find it under Profile, My Verus Relays, and on the relay map within a few minutes.
Afterwards
Looking after it: one tap a month
It looks after itself
It installs its own updates and restarts itself when one needs it, at four in the morning. It earns Verus Points while it is online.
It checks you are still there
About every thirty days it asks in the chat whether you are still looking after it. Tap to confirm. Leave it unanswered for a week and it stops earning. After ninety days it is released for somebody else to adopt.
Ask it how it is doing
Send the word status in its chat and it tells you. To stop, remove it under Profile, My Verus Relays. It stops carrying calls at once.
In your home
What the box does and does not do
It carries sealed calls. The audio is encrypted on the phones at each end. The box forwards packets it has no key to open, so it cannot hear, record or store what anybody says.
It keeps nothing about the callers. No call log, no contact list and no record of who called whom. It forgets each call a minute after it goes quiet.
It uses one port on your router. It asks your router to open that one port for calls, and refuses everything else coming in. Nobody can sign in to it from outside your home.
Your address is never shown. The public map places relays on a grid about eleven kilometres across, and never lists a relay's name next to its place.
If something is not right
Common questions
I scanned the card and the relay has not messaged me
It is probably still installing. Give it fifteen minutes from when you plugged it in, then send it any message in its chat. It replies with a fresh code.
The code has expired
Each code lasts ten minutes and works once. Send the relay any message and it sends you a new one.
Verus says I need to confirm who I am
Your Confrmo check is not yet at passport level. Tap Confirm who you are with Confrmo, scan your passport, then approve the relay again.
The two check codes do not match
Do not approve it. Close the screen and send the relay a message to get a new code. If they still do not match, email us.
I moved the box, or my router restarted
Nothing to do. It finds its way back on its own and asks the new router for its port. It stays yours.
Can somebody else take my relay?
No. Once you have approved it, it is yours until you remove it. The only exception is a relay whose owner has not checked in for ninety days: it is released, keeps its name and number, and the next verified person to message it can adopt it.
Still stuck? Email hello@verusapp.co.uk and tell us your relay's number. Never send us the check code.