Post #1491304
2026-03-12 21:39 UTC
Replies (2)
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@kudra@aus.social 2026-03-12 21:50
@daks @marsik I've been thinking that but also researching ISO - OSI to try and work out if I've missed something - but I think I've just come back to the same question 😊 I'm not a network engineer, just an enthusiast that has become absolutely depressed by what has become of the Internet, which was once really fun and vibrant and independent, but is now mostly full of corporate capture and people who are basically zombies. Reticulum is interesting because of the ideology, to specifically resist corporate capture and retain community control. I think the main difference is reticulum is designed to connect over multiple different types of networks, I've only played with Sideband so far, but that has RNode (LoRa), Wifi/Ethernet, I2P, Radio Modem, Serial Port, Weave, PLUS TCP/IP (if you /want/ to connect through the Internet: but the idea is to be as independent as possible /instead/ of requiring everything to work through TCP/IP). And reticulum is a decade old so it's not new either - I think it's getting a bit more attention now because of the rise in popularity of (newish) Meshtastic and (very new) Meshcore though, as people get LoRa devices and want to try different firmware and networks. And the challenge and fun of creating completely independent networks is absolutely addictive. Knowing you are communicating with people using nothing but your own radios that are deployed by members of the network with no subscriptions or corporations involved is extremely satisfying (and I'm sure that's part of what makes HAM attractive and has been since the golden era of radio). If I understand correctly, TOR only uses TCP/IP to anonymously route data - please correct me if I'm wrong?
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@marsik@witter.cz 2026-03-13 07:39
@daks see my longer answer to @kudra Do not conflate IP and Internet. Yes, Internet is built on IP and there are strict rules and management entities. But IP itself is just a building block. You can create a totally independent network with your own rules using the same technology. And TCP is yet another building block that only deals with multiplexing services (port number), packet reordering, loss and retransmits. It does not care about routing. There even are alternatives like QUIC.