An off-grid internet (SHTF and right now)

[liberatedsystems]

Good evening gentlemen, I have been involved with a project for a long time which may be of interest to many of you.

It is called Reticulum. To keep it brief, it is effectively a network stack that can run over many different mediums (WiFi, Ham radio, LoRa radios (more on this later), ethernet, traditional internet, etc).

I am not the creator of this project, but I have been heavily involved in the LoRa radio side of things for the past 10 months or so. Long story short, Reticulum allows you to send messages, files, host websites, make audio calls, etc all over a connection controlled by you. I should also mention that there is encryption by default, and every step possible is taken to ensure your privacy as a user. You don't need an ISP, just someone close to you which you can communicate with.

Of course, this is absolutely ideal for a SHTF scenario, but also for our times currently, given the current state of our country.

I have been involved in creating LoRa radios (LoRa is a modulation technique) which can be used connected to your mobile device, or other computer, as a connection medium. Think of it like a WiFi dongle, except in walkie talkie size Because of the bands these radios operate in, they do not require a ham radio license. Of course, these come with their own tradeoffs too, like lower transmit power as compared to ham radio. The related project of these radios is called the RNode project (which works hand in hand with Reticulum), I produce and sell some myself, but any of you can also build your own for free (as in price *and freedom*) communications. I give some links below which may be useful to you all.

You may potentially have heard of a project known as Meshtastic before. This is similar, but (IMO) much more advanced, given you can actually host websites over Reticulum which are entirely independent of the internet.

If any of you have questions, I will be very happy to answer them. I should note that Reticulum is still currently in beta (but functions very well). Thanks.

Links:
https://unsigned.io/guides/2022_03_26_pr...-lora.html (an example of messaging over Reticulum)
https://reticulum.network/
https://unsigned.io/ (website of the creator of Reticulum)
https://unsigned.io/guides/2023_01_14_Ma...RNode.html (building your own RNode)