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)

[Skean Dhude]

Welcome, I went and looked at the website when you signed up and it looks interesting. I don't know that much about radio comms so I sent a link to a couple of radio hams I know one of whom is working on something similar.

I'd be interested in seeing an article on any live deployments you have to see how it works and understand what we can use it for.

[earthman]

I'd like to know more about all this kind of tech too, will keep an eye on this thread.

[bigpaul]

Technology wont be much use post SHTF, skills and knowledge will be.
trying to make survival complicated is not the way, KISS principle, keep it stupidly simple.

[Pete Grey]

Minimum technology. A battery radio for news and a pair of walkie-talkies incase your out foraging etc (to keep in touch with OH) are minimum requirements but would cover most needs for a family. You would also need a solar charger,

[bigpaul]

walkie talkies around here would have very limited range, too many hills.
a radio is only any good if we can trust the news, I dont trust it now never mind in a crisis.

[earthman]

I agree, a radio, TV or anything else that the bought and paid for media use to push government and big pharma lies, is way down my list of must haves, although it's always good to know what the enemy is actually up to, what BS are they putting out for the sheeple to believe/swallow next.

[Pete Grey]

I don’t believe all I hear/see on the media, internet I believe even less
due to fake news and conspiracy rubbish, I use common sense.

[liberatedsystems]

> I'd be interested in seeing an article on any live deployments you have to see how it works and understand what we can use it for.
Currently the only publicly available deployment is the testnet, information about it is on the Reticulum project website. There's a lot of different sites on there, and people actively connected to it who you can chat with. I've used it a fair bit myself and it works well. The testnet is effectively a bunch of networks glued together over the internet. It's primarily internet based but I suspect some nodes are connected over radio in places.

There's a Greek guy who wrote an introduction to the project, which you can find here:
https://blog.erethon.com/blog/2023/05/19...reticulum/

He also made a network in athens, which you can find out about here:
https://f.erethon.com/mesh2023.pdf (see slide 28)

Basically, Reticulum is a tool to create networks for free communication. There are people in the UK involved in the project (myself included), but I know of nobody who operates any kind of connection outside a bloke in St. Helens.

> Technology wont be much use post SHTF, skills and knowledge will be.
I would like to object, I think communications would be incredibly useful in such a scenario. Think of a power cut for example, the radios I sell have batteries built in, which should last for some time before requiring a recharge. Your broadband connection will not be operating for the duration of the power cut. The cell towers will be down. But you can still communicate as long as your phone is charged, you have a radio and people in range. Of course you will need a power source, e.g. a generator or the like. But, I would say this could be very useful to some indeed.

To write a little more about radio, the devices I sell can communicate at up to 67kbps at the moment using the high-speed modem. That is more than adequate for sending texts, pictures, making calls, etc. I am unsure whether it would be rude to directly link to my store page here for you all to look at the specifications, but at the very least you can google my username and find my site from there

Here's another link of a guy using HF radio to connect to the testnet:
https://youtu.be/blwNVumLujc

(I should note that OFCOM prohibits encryption on HAM radio bands in the UK, but the bands that RNodes use are totally fine for encryption)

[earthman]

"I don’t believe all I hear/see on the media, internet I believe even less
due to fake news and conspiracy rubbish, I use common sense."

You certainly didn't use common sense when it comes to taking EXPERIMENTAL injections though. LOL

Seriously, I think that those injections have ruined what little common sense that you may have had.