The ScotMesh node: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 13:36, 17 September 2026

The ScotMesh node is a public Reticulum transport node for Scotland, reachable as rns.scotmesh.net. Anyone can connect to it, there is no registration and it costs nothing. It is the front page of this book; the pages after it cover each service in turn.

What it does

The node does four things:

Carries traffic. It is a transport node with enable_transport on, so anything connected to it can reach anything it can reach: other ScotMesh users, and through our peers, the wider public Reticulum network. It relays encrypted packets only; it cannot read them.
Hosts the chat room. An RRC (Reticulum Relay Chat) hub with the scotmesh room. See The chat room.
Serves pages. A Nomad Network node with connection details and news, browsable from inside Reticulum with no internet needed.
Holds messages for people who are offline. An LXMF propagation node, so a message sent to someone whose radio is off or who is out of range is delivered when they reappear.

Every address is on Services and addresses.

Where it is and what it runs on

The node is hosted in Dalgety Bay, Fife. It runs on Ubuntu, with one Reticulum daemon (rnsd) shared by the propagation node (lxmd), the Nomad Network node and an I2P router (i2pd) for the I2P entry point.

Its live status, updated every two minutes from the daemon itself, is on rns.scotmesh.net and at the top of this wiki's home page.

Ways in

Way in	Use it when	Details
TCP, `rns.scotmesh.net` port 4242	You have an ordinary internet connection	Connecting to ScotMesh
I2P	You are behind CGNAT or a firewall you do not control	Access over I2P
LoRa radio	You are within range of a ScotMesh gateway	RNode

What to expect

Uptime. It is run by volunteers on a single machine. It is up almost all of the time, but it restarts for updates and it can go down. Reticulum copes with that: paths are found again when the node returns, and the propagation node delivers what was held.
Reconnecting. Clients that reconnect quickly after a restart are welcome; the node's listener does not block them for it (see Known bugs and workarounds for why that needs saying).
Privacy. The node sees which addresses are talking, as any transport node must, and nothing else. Messages, pages and files are encrypted end to end. Messages held by the propagation node are encrypted for their recipient. The chat hub keeps the chat room's messages for 7 days so newcomers can catch up; see The chat room.
Announces. The node's services announce themselves every hour, so once you are connected they appear in your client's lists by themselves.

When it breaks

Check the status strip first. If it says the node is down, someone already knows. If it says up and you cannot connect, work through Troubleshooting, then tell us on the ScotMesh Discord or in the chat room once you are back on.

Running one yourself

The network gets more resilient with every transport node that is not ours. Running your own transport node explains what it commits you to and how to peer with us.

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-''Outline — the shape of the page, not the page. Expand or replace freely.''
+The '''ScotMesh node''' is a public Reticulum [[Glossary#Transport node|transport node]] for Scotland, reachable as <code>rns.scotmesh.net</code>. Anyone can connect to it, there is no registration and it costs nothing. It is the front page of this book; the pages after it cover each service in turn.
-What the ScotMesh node is, where it lives, what it runs and whose infrastructure it talks to. The front page of this book. The addresses themselves live on the [https://wiki.scotmesh.net homepage] — link there rather than repeating them.
+== What it does ==
-== To cover ==
+The node does four things:
-=== The node ===
+* '''Carries traffic.''' It is a transport node with <code>enable_transport</code> on, so anything connected to it can reach anything it can reach: other ScotMesh users, and through [[Who we peer with|our peers]], the wider public Reticulum network. It relays encrypted packets only; it cannot read them.
+* '''Hosts the chat room.''' An RRC (Reticulum Relay Chat) hub with the <code>scotmesh</code> room. See [[The chat room]].
+* '''Serves pages.''' A [[Nomad Network]] node with connection details and news, browsable from inside Reticulum with no internet needed.
+* '''Holds messages for people who are offline.''' An LXMF [[Propagation node|propagation node]], so a message sent to someone whose radio is off or who is out of range is delivered when they reappear.
-* What the node does: transport, chat, pages, offline messages
+Every address is on [[Services and addresses]].
-* Where it is hosted (Dalgety Bay) and what it runs on
-* Uptime expectations and who to tell when it breaks
-=== Services and addresses ===
+== Where it is and what it runs on ==
-* Every destination hash, with what it is for and which clients reach it
+The node is hosted in Dalgety Bay, Fife. It runs on Ubuntu, with one Reticulum daemon (<code>rnsd</code>) shared by the propagation node (<code>lxmd</code>), the Nomad Network node and an I2P router (<code>i2pd</code>) for the [[Access over I2P|I2P entry point]].
-* Which addresses are stable and which could change — the I2P key is random, so losing it means a permanently new address
-=== Who we peer with ===
+Its live status, updated every two minutes from the daemon itself, is on [https://rns.scotmesh.net rns.scotmesh.net] and at the top of this wiki's [[Main Page|home page]].
-* Current peers and where they are: <code>rebelnet.uk</code>, <code>rns.cybercore.uk</code>, <code>rmap.world</code> (France), and the Northern Ireland I2P node
+== Ways in ==
-* Why peering costs the operator nothing — transport nodes relay ciphertext only
-* How to peer with us, and that we would like more UK and Irish links
+{| class="wikitable"
+! Way in !! Use it when !! Details
+|-
+| TCP, <code>rns.scotmesh.net</code> port 4242 || You have an ordinary internet connection || [[Connecting to ScotMesh]]
+|-
+| I2P || You are behind CGNAT or a firewall you do not control || [[Access over I2P]]
+|-
+| LoRa radio || You are within range of a ScotMesh gateway || [[RNode]]
+|}
+== What to expect ==
+* '''Uptime.''' It is run by volunteers on a single machine. It is up almost all of the time, but it restarts for updates and it can go down. Reticulum copes with that: paths are found again when the node returns, and the [[Propagation node|propagation node]] delivers what was held.
+* '''Reconnecting.''' Clients that reconnect quickly after a restart are welcome; the node's listener does not block them for it (see [[Known bugs and workarounds]] for why that needs saying).
+* '''Privacy.''' The node sees which addresses are talking, as any transport node must, and nothing else. Messages, pages and files are encrypted end to end. Messages held by the propagation node are encrypted for their recipient. The chat hub keeps the chat room's messages for 7 days so newcomers can catch up; see [[The chat room]].
+* '''Announces.''' The node's services announce themselves every hour, so once you are connected they appear in your client's lists by themselves.
+== When it breaks ==
+Check the status strip first. If it says the node is down, someone already knows. If it says up and you cannot connect, work through [[Troubleshooting]], then tell us on the [https://discord.gg/ytxfyuDmSt ScotMesh Discord] or in the chat room once you are back on.
+== Running one yourself ==
+The network gets more resilient with every transport node that is not ours. [[Running your own transport node]] explains what it commits you to and how to peer with us.
 [[Category:The ScotMesh Backbone]]