Grow Your Own Network

Infrastructure won’t change fast enough for our privacy needs, so we build something new. When the internet goes down, or is too heavily monitored, we need out-of-band options.

What is a mesh network?

A decentralized group of radios (nodes) that talk to each other directly instead of through a corporate cell tower or ISP. A message to a friend across town hops from your node, to a neighbor’s, to another, until it arrives.

Low-power, long-range radio like LoRa lets us build a grid that is independent of the internet.

Enter Reticulum

Reticulum is a networking stack made for this. It has no IP addresses. It routes over LoRa, serial cables, or the regular internet. Built for slow, noisy links, everything is encrypted and compressed by default. You don’t need to trust an ISP, because you are the ISP.

How to get on the mesh

It takes more know-how than installing an app, but it’s rewarding.

1. Get a radio. LilyGO T-Beams or Seeed SenseCAPs are cheap.
2. Flash RNode firmware. RNode firmware turns it into a universal radio modem.
3. Install software. Nomad Network for the terminal, Sideband for desktop and mobile, or Columba on mobile.
4. Connect. Plug the RNode into your computer or phone, point the software at it, and you’re on the mesh.

A Reticulum Transport Node on a home server can bridge the radio mesh and the wider internet, so mobile-data users can talk to LoRa users.

Want help designing one? See Tier 3.