Meshtastic is good for local mesh nets with a limited number of participants. If you rather want to connect to larger meshes, Meshcore is the better choice as it’s far more reliable in larger nets.
Yes, depending the case there are several alternatives, eg.Yggdrasil or OSHI Mesh. 40 years ago there was the Finger Protocol which still is implemented by default and works in Windows, Mac and most distros
Meshcore prefers to rely on volunteer infrastructure, meshtastic is better at ad-hoc networks.
If your going to a concert or convention, Meshtastic would be the better system. If your at home trying to make a local network, Meshcore is the tool for you.
Right now the issue is that they both mostly use the same hardware and there isnt really a method of using both projects on the same device to utilize their best aspects, ya sorta just have to go with what everyone else uses.
I saw a device just the other day that had 2 Heltec boards in one in closure so you could have both Meshcore/tastic firmwares running in one handheld enclosure. It seemed like a good way to have both firmwares running in a single device.
Meshtastic is so easy to kneecap. A couple of people deploy tracker nodes broadcasting GPS once a second, or someone thinks it is a bright idea to run a router node inside a house and a multi-city mesh becomes useless.
It does not scale well.
Hopefully MeshCore keeps good growth. Seems much more stable and reliable.
Does one need a friend to make use of this, or is there a community? Like some kind of group chat or something? 😄
You can check your location there and see if any nodes are listed in your area for a starting point, what the others said too.
Nice…quite a few in my area by the looks of things!
There is probably more than what is shown. Not every posts theirs to the site and some don’t keep theirs on/charged always.
Meshcore has a default public channel, and usually several optional other public ones as well, depending on where you’re located. Usually there’s also some online community/forum for each country/region where people organise themselves.
Great thanks!
I’d look up one for your area, Im in Puget mesh bc I’m in the Seattle area, so I’d just search up “mesh network in x region” and see what you get
!meshtastic@mander.xyz if anyone is interested.
Nice, but… why?
Among other reasons, a well-established, decentralized mesh network builds community resilience that can be very useful in emergencies where centralized infrastructure is compromised.
Also a off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure.
Currently considering buying one to stay in touch with a local community in a jurisdiction with heavy Internet censorship, where only state-run messaging platforms run reliably
It’s a hobby
Decentralized messaging
