# Wifi mesh over NodeMCU?

_Build Guides · started by Arcade on Tue, May 26, 2026 9:51 PM_

Tags: Question

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## Original post

**Arcade** · Tue, May 26, 2026 9:51 PM

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone had worked on creating a mesh network of ESP32-based boards, like the dirt-cheap nodeMCUs, to use as an interface to Reticulum. 2.4GHz has decent range and bandwidth, the boards are real cheap, and there are existing meshes like ESP-NOW that work. 

I don't know if it makes more sense for them to function as members of their own networks, managing the whole thing, or if using one more like a RNode would make sense, but I'm curious as to what's already out there.

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## Reply 1

**joakim** · Wed, May 27, 2026 7:00 AM

RNode runs on ESP32, but not ESP8266 which nodeMCU uses.

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## Reply 2

**Arcade** · Thu, May 28, 2026 12:54 AM

It does, but what I want is something that runs a connection over the wifi interface, not a node that runs over a LoRA connection, which unless I'm missunderstanding, RNode assumes.

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## Reply 3

**joakim** · Thu, May 28, 2026 7:35 AM

Sorry, hadn't had my coffee :)

I don't think ESP8266 is powerful enough to run [microReticulum](https://github.com/attermann/microReticulum). There's a lot of crypto happening on the device, and transport nodes need quite a bit of storage.

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