I think there are Jabber based gateways/servers that support both XMPP and MQTT or you could always use something to route messages between the two, that way you could chat to people outside Meshtastic.
My thought was to have Meshtastic communicating with a local MQTT broker (mosquitto) (http://mosquitto.org/) and Node-Red reading from MQTT. That way it can control any hardware onboard, send messages, emails, etc.
Great question I’m interested in the answer. Not designing this into the LoRa spec and requiring this capability seems shortsighted at best.
I’ve been experimenting with these (see link) for my outdoor repeater nodes and while not perfect, they have some nice features. Including the protected screw holes for mounting and the internal mount standoffs. I’ve been using the standoffs with custom 3D printed brackets to mount the PCBs and the Antennas.
The type of plastic is reasonably durable but soft enough to avoid cracks and take drilled holes without chipping and breaking.
The clear top is also nice for obvious reasons.