this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Meshtastic

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Cross State Communication (piefed.social)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by TechnoCat@piefed.social to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz
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If I live in one state and my parents live a few states over, would I be able to use this network to communicate with them? Not sure if this is a mesh network for long range routing.

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[โ€“] gkaklas@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

Hello, sorry for the random question, but I'm new and still trying to understand the benefits of joining the network and how it works

What is the point of a network that:

  • Is off-the-grid but can't connect nodes that are too far away
  • Is independent, but forces people to use LoRa which creates a dependence on LoRa-licensed radios
  • Is decentralized, but obviously needs few centralized higher power backbone nodes in order to function (e.g. in this case)
  • Is peer-to-peer, but from what I read it's recommended to not have your node accessible at all times (or have it read-only?) in order to not have the TTL expire
  • Cannot connect remote networks together, but also can't bridge them in some other way

Is the main use case just connecting e.g. a couple of sensors on a remote farm a few kilometers away from your house, and have 2 neighbours relaying the messages to you along the way? ๐Ÿค” Why does that need a decentralized peer-to-peer network if it can just be done by simple repeaters?

[โ€“] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I have these questions as well. I am subscribed anyway because I find the subject interesting. My assumption is that the protocol will not remain static and that with higher rates of adoption, the network will grow in strength and therefore usability and will evolve to accommodate that. Ultimately, a simple network that say, even just 10% the country participated in may be enough to allow universal off-grid communication which could be extremely useful. But there are a lot of roadblocks (not the least of which are the technical aspects you mention). There will also be a lot of exterior pressure along the way to adapt, extend and extinguish from capital interests.

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