Reticulum is not a service you subscribe to, nor is it a single global network you "join". It is a *networking stack*; a toolkit for building communications systems that align with your specific values, requirements, and operational environment. The way you choose to connect to other Reticulum peers is entirely your own choice.
One of the most powerful aspects of Reticulum is that it provides a multitude of tools to establish, maintain, and optimize connectivity. You can use these tools in isolation or combine them in complex configurations to achieve a vast array of goals.
Whether your aim is to create a completely private, air-gapped network for your family; to build a resilient community mesh that survives infrastructure collapse; to connect far and wide to as many nodes as possible; or simply to maintain a reliable, encrypted link to a specific organization you care about, Reticulum provides the mechanisms to make it happen.
There is no "right" or "wrong" way to build a Reticulum network, and you don't need to be a network engineer just to get started. If the information flows in the way you intend, and your privacy and security requirements are met, your configuration is a success. Reticulum is designed to make the most challenging and difficult scenarios attainable, even when other networking technologies fail.
When you first start using Reticulum, you need a way to obtain connectivity with the peers you want to communicate with; the process of *bootstrapping connectivity*.
A common mistake in modern networking is the reliance on a few centralized, hard-coded entrypoints. If every user simply connects to the same list of public IP addresses found on a website, the network becomes brittle, centralized, and ultimately fails to deliver on the promise of decentralization.
Reticulum encourages the approach of *organic growth*. Instead of relying on permanent static connections to distant servers, you can use temporary bootstrap connections to continously *discover* more relevant or local infrastructure. Once discovered, your system can automatically form stronger, more direct links to these peers, and discard the temporary bootstrap links. This results in a web of connections that are geographically relevant, resilient and efficient.
It *is* possible to simply add a few public entrypoints to the ``[interfaces]`` section of your Reticulum configuration and be connected, but a better option is to enable :ref:`interface discovery<using-interface_discovery>` and either manually select relevant, local interfaces, or enable discovered interface auto-connection.
A relevant option in this context is the :ref:`bootstrap only<interfaces-options>` interface option. This is an automated tool for better distributing connectivity. By enabling interface discovery and auto-connection, and marking an interface as ``bootstrap_only``, you tell Reticulum to use that interface primarliy to find connectivity options, and then disconnect it once sufficient entrypoints have been discovered. This helps create a network topology that favors locality and resilience over the simple centralization caused by using only a few static entrypoints.
You do not need a datacenter to be a meaningful part of the Reticulum ecosystem. In fact, the most important nodes in the network are often the smallest ones.
We strongly encourage everyone, even home users, to think in terms of building **personal infrastructure**. Don't connect every phone, tablet, and computer in your house directly to a public internet gateway. Instead, repurpose an old computer, a Raspberry Pi, or a supported router to act as your own, personal **Transport Node**:
* Your local Transport Node sits in your home, connected to your WiFi and perhaps a radio interface (like an RNode).
* You configure this node with a ``bootstrap_only`` interface (perhaps a TCP tunnel to a wider network) and enable interface discovery.
* While you sleep, work, or cook, your node listens to the network. It discovers other local community members, validates their Network Identities, and automatically establishes direct links.
* Your personal devices now connect to your *local* node, which is integrated into a living, breathing local mesh. Your traffic flows through local paths provided by other real people in the community rather than bouncing off a distant server.
**Don't wait for others to build the networks you want to see**. Every network is important, perhaps even most so those that support individual families and persons. Once enough of this personal, local infrastructure exist, connecting them directly to each other, without traversing the public Internet, becomes inevitable.
***Bootstrap Links:** You connect a ``bootstrap_only`` interface to a public gateway on the Internet to scan for new connectable peers or to regain connectivity if your other interfaces fail.
***Local Wide-Area Connectivity:** You run a ``RNodeInterface`` on a shared frequency, giving you completely self-sovereign and private wide-area access to both your own network and other Reticulum peers globally, without any "service providers" being able to control or monitor how you interact with people.
By combining these methods, you create a system that is secure against single points of failure, adaptable to changing network conditions, and better integrated into your physical and social reality.
Network Health & Responsibility
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As you participate in the wider networks you discover and build, you will inevitably encounter peers that are misconfigured, malicious, or simply broken. To protect your resources and those of your local peers, you can utilize the :ref:`Blackhole Management<using-blackhole_management>` system.
Whether you manually block a spamming identity or subscribe to a blackhole list maintained by a trusted Network Identity, these tools help ensure that *your* transport capacity is used for what *you* consider legitimate communication. This keeps your local segment efficient and contributes to the health of the wider network.
If you have the means to host a stable node with a public IP address, consider becoming a :ref:`Public Entrypoint<hosting-entrypoints>`. By :ref:`publishing your interface as discoverable<interfaces-discoverable>`, you provide a potential connection point for others, helping the network grow and reach new areas.
For guidelines on how to properly configure and secure a public gateway, refer to the :ref:`Hosting Public Entrypoints<hosting-entrypoints>` section.
A global, distributed backbone of Reticulum Transport Nodes is being run by volunteers from around the world. This network constitutes a heterogenous collection of both public and private nodes that form an uncoordinated, voluntary inter-networking backbone that currently provides global transport and internetworking capabilities for Reticulum.
As a good starting point, you can find interface definitions for connecting your own networks to this backbone on websites such as `directory.rns.recipes <https://directory.rns.recipes/>`_ and `rmap.world <https://rmap.world/>`_.
Don't rely on just a single connection to a the distributed backbone for everyday use. It is much better to have several redundant connections configured, and enable the interface discovery options, so your nodes can continously discover peering opportunities as the network evolves. Refer to the :ref:`Bootstrapping Connectivity<bootstrapping-connectivity>` section to understand the options.
If you want to help build a strong global interconnection backbone, you can host a public (or private) entry-point to a Reticulum network over the
Internet. This section offers some helpful pointers. Once you have set up your public entrypoint, it is a great idea to :ref:`make it discoverable over Reticulum<interfaces-discoverable>`.
Reticulum currently offers three interfaces suitable for connecting instances over the Internet: :ref:`Backbone<interfaces-backbone>`, :ref:`TCP<interfaces-tcps>`
and :ref:`I2P<interfaces-i2p>`. Each interface offers a different set of features, and Reticulum
users should carefully choose the interface which best suites their needs.
The ``TCPServerInterface`` allows users to host an instance accessible over TCP/IP. This
method is generally faster, lower latency, and more energy efficient than using ``I2PInterface``,
however it also leaks more data about the server host.
The ``BackboneInterface`` is a very fast and efficient interface type available on POSIX operating
systems, designed to handle many hundreds of connections simultaneously with low memory, processing
and I/O overhead. It is fully compatible with the TCP-based interface types.
TCP connections reveal the IP address of both your instance and the server to anyone who can
inspect the connection. Someone could use this information to determine your location or identity. Adversaries
inspecting your packets may be able to record packet metadata like time of transmission and packet size.
Even though Reticulum encrypts traffic, TCP does not, so an adversary may be able to use
packet inspection to learn that a system is running Reticulum, and what other IP addresses connect to it.
Hosting a publicly reachable instance over TCP also requires a publicly reachable IP address,
which most Internet connections don't offer anymore.
The ``I2PInterface`` routes messages through the `Invisible Internet Protocol
(I2P) <https://geti2p.net/en/>`_. To use this interface, users must also run an I2P daemon in
parallel to ``rnsd``. For always-on I2P nodes it is recommended to use `i2pd <https://i2pd.website/>`_.
By default, I2P will encrypt and mix all traffic sent over the Internet, and
hide both the sender and receiver Reticulum instance IP addresses. Running an I2P node
will also relay other I2P user's encrypted packets, which will use extra
bandwidth and compute power, but also makes timing attacks and other forms of
deep-packet-inspection much more difficult.
I2P also allows users to host globally available Reticulum instances from non-public IP's and behind firewalls and NAT.
In general it is recommended to use an I2P node if you want to host a publicly accessible
instance, while preserving anonymity. If you care more about performance, and a slightly
