As a router owner, you play a critical role in the success of our mesh. A router is a node which is set to the “Router” or “Router_Late” device role. These roles are unique from the rest, and it is very important to understand the difference as well as the reasons a router role may or may not be the right choice for you.
Our goal for the WPAMesh organization is to create a friendly and helpful community that works together to help our mesh networks operate efficiently and reliably. Meshtastic is a communication platform after all, so of course it would make sense to develop a strategy to coordinate the mesh effectively.
A huge benefit to meshtastic is how affordable it is to get involved. Radios which can communicate with our system can cost less than $25 depending on where they’re sourced. And even a small $25 radio can perform just as well as a $100 one. Both likely have their differences which justify the price difference, but the cheap radios and low cost of entry is a good thing and a bad thing sometimes.
It’s also very easy to get started once you have the hardware. The documentation is online and easily accessible. The tasks to get setup could be performed by anyone with a computer, and in some cases, devices ordered online can arrive at your doorstep pre-loaded with the Meshtastic firmware. As such, there is a lot of window for our system to be abused by folks with bad intentions, as well as people who simply don’t know any better. But not knowing any better is OK! That’s why we created WPAMesh.net.
If you’re reading this because you have set up your node as a Router or Router_Late role, we want to talk to you! It is most beneficial to you and the rest of the mesh if other infrastructure maintainers have a way to communicate with one another so efforts can be coordinated. Not just that, but we also want to help you help the mesh the best way you can. So we are very interested in hearing about your setup, and offering tips or support where needed.
Getting in touch is fairly straightforward. We have multiple communications channels you can reach us by. The primary way is via Discord. You can find the invite link to our server “PghMesh” in the left sidebar. If Discord isn’t your jive, we encourage you to use our contact form, which will email the WPAMesh team with your query. Someone will respond to you via email.