I have a mesh system: I’m seeing mesh IDs that’s not part of my mesh

1

So I have five nodes in my mesh network. I’m seeing traffic (nodeinfo packet) coming from a node that is not part of my mesh.

How is that possible?

2

You are using a default primary channel.

3

If by default you mean the default 128 (or 256?) bit value, no. We are using our own encryption value.

4

Probably an incomplete packet from your mesh, does it have any values or is everything empty?

5

When I get an unexpected nodeid the json program crashes (that’s fixed now) so when the next packet comes across I can answer that question. It only appears to show up on nodeinfo json packets though.

6

The protobufs mqtt is much better than the json

7

Not following your thought process.

8

The json mqtt is meanest to be a quick start, it is not reliable enough for an actual deployment.

9

Do you have an example of the Node Info Received? Should look like this if its JSON.

{
“channel”: 0,
“from”: 2130649628,
“id”: 1506832681,
“payload”: {
“hardware”: 10,
“id”: “!7eff221c”,
“longname”: “RT2”,
“shortname”: “RT2”
},
“sender”: “!7eff1a90”,
“timestamp”: 1680114896,
“to”: -1,
“type”: “nodeinfo”
}

10

Ok now I am really confused. I was originally using the MQTT, then you told me to go use jsin as it is much more readable. Now you’re telling me to go back to MQTT. So which is it???

11

That’s exactly what it looks like. The data looks clean in my end it is just an unknown mode.

Suggestions?

12

Change your rebroadcast mode to Local Only. I think whats happening is your node is acting like a repeater to someone elses node traffic that is not encrypted. Being as the rebroadcast mode will actually forward information that is the same LoRa radio settings. Correct me if im wrong @garth. However it doesnt hurt anything. I live in an area where i have not witnessed this yet. I run a log file of all node info and telemetry info that hits the MQTT node and nothing yet in 3 months.

1 Like
13

also the “from”: 2130649628 is the actual node that sent the info to the mesh. I would match that info to your node names and see if you have an extra from #.

14

Most likely it is coming from the public mqtt he is connected to, seems unlikely to be Lora.

15

I’m on a closed (isolated) network.

16

While connected to the public MQTT server?

Post you settings.

17

I am using my own MQTT server:

Here you go:
mqtt.address: 10.251.3.112 (this is an IP address within my own network, and inside my firewall)
mqtt.username: xxxxxxx
mqtt.password: xxxxxxxx
mqtt.encryptionEnabled: false
mqtt.jsonEnabled: true

18

Likely an issue introduced by the JSON mqtt functionality then, I have seen nothing that indicates you have received any stray lora traffic and if you have a non default key your nodes can’t decode the traffic.

May also be incomplete data from one of your nodes.

19

Are incomplete packets (or uncorrected packets) still forwarded to the MQTT server? If not, then the packets I am getting are 100% FEC (i.e.without errors).

Incomplete packets are still forwarded out the mqtt port?

20

Does the From match any of your other node packets?