Just FYI at the speed meshtastic/core is talking about, it would be very slow. Like dialup would look fast.

But its a fun hobby! Take a look over at !meshtastic@mander.xyz for anyone interested. Meshtastic (and meshcore) are also SUUUPER alpha so dont expect anything polished.

BTW, Meshcore is MIT and not fully FOSS, while Meshtastic is GPL and fully FOSS.

I've been looking into this as well and just bought my first components.

I'm trying Meshtastic first and then will try Meshcore.

What does everybody think of Reticulum Network and RNode? It honestly seems superior conceptually to Meshtastic/Meshcore, but I'm not sure how good it is in practice or if anybody is actually using it.

Mesh is cool, but you get faster speeds on amateur HF or 900 bands and a further distance

meshcore is licensed the way you do it if you plan to go freemium down the road. its fine to use if your area has already gone that way. but meshtastic fits better in a foss standard and does the same thing.

either way you go its best to see these as fancy pagers not diy instant messagers. they have some great potential in a world where govs or nature can knock down cell service, if you're purposeful and realistic about it. but they are not as easy to build as youtube would tell you. and they're not gonna replace your phone full time.

Honestly I think it would be cool to see a widespread up network based around Bluetooth and WiFi. They don't have the same range but the upside is that tons of devices support them.

It’s a lot of fun, but not an internet replacement yet. They did just come out with a new dual band that has enough bandwidth to do something useful. Can’t wait to give it a try.

Still very worth setting up. I have a node that runs in my attic, and a few that I can take around with me. I can get good single most anywhere in my neighborhood, and I have enough nodes nearby that I can pretty much communicate with people all over the metro area (I’m in the twin cities).

not really Internet, just a group chat.

that said, making a basic internet on up of it wouldn't be too hard.

i really want to see HALOW become cheap and highly availeble