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"The internet no longer exists" is a particularly extreme subset of off-grid scenarios. For the more plausible off-grid scenarios—the ones that have actually ha

by wtallis 9mo ago

"The internet no longer exists" is a particularly extreme subset of off-grid scenarios. For the more plausible off-grid scenarios—the ones that have actually happened—the unavailability of the internet has been varying degrees of localized and temporary. In that context, being able to bootstrap the entire network without any reliance on internet infrastructure is more of a convenience than a hard requirement. In particular, it seems obvious to me that any preparedness plan that requires a user to acquire in advance specialized hardware (eg. a battery/solar-powered long-range radio of some kind) to be used with an off-grid network can reasonably expect that user to also be prepared with the software to drive that hardware.

alnwlsn 9mo ago
The whole project is a convenience. If I were in a situation where I actually had to rely on Meshtastic for comms, I'd be pretty nervous. It doesn't really work that well. Luckily, I've only enjoyed Meshtastic recreationally. Where this comes from is from me trying to learn about and set up some nodes on vacation in an area with very limited internet. I followed the tutorials, thought I had what I needed, but I was wrong. Woops, documentation is online. Within the community, I've seen "that same thing happened to me" more than once. As with many hobbies, this is a "just because I can, I will" type of thing.
- sleepybrett 9mo ago
  What you don't think we can put up a shadow internet running at 250kbps? That said, I picked up a couple of prebuilt lora solar nodes and a couple of mobile nodes (seed solar jobies and seeed mobile jobies) and stuck the solar ones into my upper story windows just over new years, one is set up as a meshtastic repeater the other as a meshcore repeater. I'm pretty amazed at the distances I hear from, I'm getting stuff this morning over meshcore all the way from vancouver bc into my office in seattle (pugetnet.org). To get it all dialed in having a discord full of old HAM guys that know RF pretty well certainly doesn't hurt. It's certainly hobbiest grade at best. It seems like it could be very interesting for installs in small communities and larger estates for backhaul for remote iot applications. Obviously you aren't going to push video over that bandwidth but for weather stations and the like seems cool. Reticulum becomes more interesting when you are talking about some of the more robust radio technologies. Building a mesh LAN out of old wifi gear is interesting in concept.
HelloNurse 9mo ago
Not only any computer of last resort would have software installed in advance and easily prepared redundant archives to install it again, but "pip install" is perfectly fine for other use cases: testing Reticulum, regularly updating everyday computers, improvised installations on someone else's computer, etc.

by wtallis 9mo ago

alnwlsn 9mo ago

The whole project is a convenience. If I were in a situation where I actually had to rely on Meshtastic for comms, I'd be pretty nervous. It doesn't really work that well. Luckily, I've only enjoyed Meshtastic recreationally. Where this comes from is from me trying to learn about and set up some nodes on vacation in an area with very limited internet. I followed the tutorials, thought I had what I needed, but I was wrong. Woops, documentation is online. Within the community, I've seen "that same thing happened to me" more than once. As with many hobbies, this is a "just because I can, I will" type of thing.

sleepybrett 9mo ago
What you don't think we can put up a shadow internet running at 250kbps? That said, I picked up a couple of prebuilt lora solar nodes and a couple of mobile nodes (seed solar jobies and seeed mobile jobies) and stuck the solar ones into my upper story windows just over new years, one is set up as a meshtastic repeater the other as a meshcore repeater. I'm pretty amazed at the distances I hear from, I'm getting stuff this morning over meshcore all the way from vancouver bc into my office in seattle (pugetnet.org). To get it all dialed in having a discord full of old HAM guys that know RF pretty well certainly doesn't hurt. It's certainly hobbiest grade at best. It seems like it could be very interesting for installs in small communities and larger estates for backhaul for remote iot applications. Obviously you aren't going to push video over that bandwidth but for weather stations and the like seems cool. Reticulum becomes more interesting when you are talking about some of the more robust radio technologies. Building a mesh LAN out of old wifi gear is interesting in concept.

HelloNurse 9mo ago

Not only any computer of last resort would have software installed in advance and easily prepared redundant archives to install it again, but "pip install" is perfectly fine for other use cases: testing Reticulum, regularly updating everyday computers, improvised installations on someone else's computer, etc.