MeshCore is an open, community radio mesh built on LoRa. It carries small messages across long distances on very little power, keeps working without internet or mains power, and grows as people add nodes and repeaters. It belongs to its community, not to any one company. ThreeShield is a participant, not an owner.

Why does a security firm use a radio mesh?

Because the moment a client most needs to hear from their systems is often the moment the internet or the power is down, which is exactly when network-based monitoring goes silent. We use MeshCore as an out-of-band path so an outage or an environmental alarm, like a flooding server room, still reaches us and the client. It rides Lavawall Sentinel, the outage and environmental monitoring we deploy (now in limited early release).

Are you a good citizen of the mesh?

We try to be. Our footprint is deliberately light: short, occasional alerts rather than a constant stream, so we take very little of the shared airtime. We do not use the community mesh as free backhaul for bulk data, and our systems stay quiet until something genuinely needs attention.

Does your traffic put client data or the mesh at risk?

No. Every message carries Lavawall encryption and hash verification on top of MeshCore's own protections, so the contents are private and cannot be altered or spoofed. Nothing readable about a client ever lands on the shared mesh, and because our messages are small and rare they do not crowd out other members.

How do you give back to the mesh?

We deploy repeaters, including solar-powered ones, and we place them where they help more than just us: in underserved areas that need coverage and along the paths between our clients and the wider mesh. A repeater we raise for our own reliability carries other people's messages too, so extending the mesh for our clients extends it for the community.

Can I host a repeater or coordinate coverage with you?

Yes. If you have a good location, want to host a repeater, or want to coordinate coverage in your area, get in touch. We would rather work with local mesh communities than around them.

Do your clients have to use MeshCore?

No. It only comes into play with Lavawall Sentinel, as the backup path that keeps alerts flowing when a site's internet or power is down, with Meshtastic as a further fallback. Everything else ThreeShield and Lavawall do runs over the internet as usual.

Which cities do you run MeshCore repeaters in?

We have begun deploying repeaters, and our own coverage is early and still limited. It starts in Calgary, our home base, and we are expanding to the other cities we serve: Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Whitecourt, Vancouver, and Mississauga. We deliberately target underserved areas like Grande Prairie and Whitecourt where MeshCore coverage is still thin.

Is there MeshCore coverage in Calgary?

Yes. Calgary has one of Alberta's most active MeshCore communities, including the YYC MeshCore group, with live coverage on meshmonitoring.com. Calgary is our home base and the first place we have begun putting up our own repeaters, though that coverage is still limited and growing.

Is there MeshCore in Edmonton, Red Deer, or Lethbridge?

Yes. Edmonton's mesh runs through the yegmesh.ca community, Lethbridge through YQLMesh, and Red Deer anchors the QEII corridor between the two. Repeaters we place in these cities add to the existing Alberta mesh.

What about MeshCore in Grande Prairie and Whitecourt?

Both have little documented MeshCore coverage today, which is why we prioritize them. For remote client sites in the Peace Country and along the Highway 43 corridor, an off-grid alert path matters most, so these are priorities for our repeaters, including solar ones.

Do you cover MeshCore in Vancouver or Mississauga?

Yes. Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are covered by CascadiaMesh, and Mississauga sits within the Greater Toronto Area mesh. Where we serve clients in those cities, repeaters we add contribute back to the community mesh already there.

What hardware do I need to join MeshCore?

A LoRa radio node: a handheld companion device for messaging, or a fixed repeater with a good antenna to extend coverage. The MeshCore Canada community maintains recommended hardware lists and a flasher tool. Clients we monitor do not need their own node, because the Lavawall Sentinel hardware we deploy already includes the MeshCore path.

What frequency does MeshCore use in Canada, and is it legal to run?

MeshCore in Canada runs on the licence-exempt LoRa ISM band, with a community baseline preset around 910.525 MHz (62.5 kHz bandwidth, spreading factor 7, coding rate 5). It is licence-free, and each operator is responsible for legal frequencies, power, antennas, and duty cycle in their location. Confirm the current preset on the MeshCore Canada site.

How far does MeshCore reach?

It depends on antenna quality, height, terrain, and line of sight. A handheld indoors may cover a neighbourhood; a well-placed outdoor repeater can reach many kilometres, and the mesh extends that as each repeater relays messages. Good repeater sites are what make the network reliable.

How do I check MeshCore coverage or get involved in my area?

Browse the MeshCore Canada province directory and regional community sites like AlbertaMesh, yegmesh.ca, and YQLMesh, join the community forum or a provincial Discord, and pick up a companion device. If you can host a repeater in a good location you extend coverage for everyone. We are happy to coordinate with local operators, and if you want to host a repeater or improve coverage where we serve clients, contact us.

How does Sentinel reach you when a client's internet or power is down?

Sentinel tries several paths in order and falls through to the next if one is unavailable: the wired network (USB or Ethernet) first, then MeshCore, the long-range community radio mesh our repeaters run on, and finally Meshtastic, a second independent LoRa mesh, as a last resort. Because its devices are battery-backed and its radio path does not need the internet or mains power, an outage or a flooding server room still reaches us and the client during the outage.

Does Sentinel use cellular, and are there monthly SIM or data fees?

The standard hardware does not use cellular, so there are no per-device SIM cards and no monthly carrier data charges, unlike cellular out-of-band appliances that bill a recurring fee per device. The out-of-band path is license-free LoRa radio (MeshCore, with Meshtastic as a fallback), and cellular is available as a custom option only where a client specifically wants it. In most locations MeshCore is also more reliable during a widespread outage, when cell networks tend to congest or fail.

Do you deploy Meshtastic repeaters as well as MeshCore?

Our repeater network is primarily MeshCore, which is what we build and contribute back to the community. In regions that are not built out with MeshCore yet, we also deploy Meshtastic repeaters as a stopgap so client sites still have an out-of-band path, and we move them onto MeshCore as coverage grows. The Sentinel hardware we deploy can use either mesh, with MeshCore preferred.

Is Lavawall Sentinel available yet?

Sentinel is in limited early release: Lavawall is onboarding a small number of sites at a time, and we deploy and support it for our clients as part of that program. If you want out-of-band and environmental monitoring for your server rooms, contact us and we will get you into the early-access program and map out coverage for your sites.

What can Sentinel monitor in a server room when the network or power is out?

Outages (internet, DNS, server, and power) and environmental and physical conditions: temperature, humidity, water and flooding, smoke, carbon monoxide, motion or people in a room that should be empty, doors left open, and unauthorized access. Because the devices are battery-backed and report over radio, these alerts reach us during the very outage that silences network-based monitoring. See Lavawall Sentinel for the full detail.

MeshCore community

On the mesh, lightly,
and we help extend it.

ThreeShield uses the MeshCore community radio mesh to carry out-of-band alerts for our clients, so an outage or a flooding server room still reaches us when the internet and power are down. We try to be good members of the mesh: a small, quiet footprint, encrypted traffic that never exposes client details on the shared mesh, and repeaters we place where they help other people too.

Host a repeater or say hello See Lavawall Sentinel →

What it is

A community mesh we take part in, not a product we own

MeshCore is an open, community radio mesh built on LoRa. It moves small messages across long distances on very little power, it keeps working when the internet and mains power do not, and it grows as people add nodes and repeaters. It belongs to its community. We are simply a participant that tries to use it responsibly and add to it.

How we try to be a good member

Light on the mesh, and adding to it

A light footprint

We put only small, occasional alerts on the mesh, never a constant stream and never bulk data. Our monitoring stays quiet until something needs attention, so we use very little of the shared airtime.

No client data exposed on the mesh

Our messages carry Lavawall encryption and hash verification on top of MeshCore's own protections, so they are private and cannot be spoofed. Nothing readable about a client ever lands on the shared mesh.

Repeaters that give back

We deploy repeaters, including solar-powered ones, in underserved areas and along the paths that serve our clients. A repeater we raise for our own reliability carries everyone else's messages too.

Coverage

Coverage that helps more than us

When we need reliable coverage to a client's site, we would rather strengthen the public mesh than build something private and closed. So we place repeaters where they fill real gaps: underserved areas with little coverage today, and the routes between our clients and the wider mesh. Solar power lets us put them where there is sun but no easy mains, and keeps them running through the very outages our monitoring exists to catch.

If you run mesh nodes, host infrastructure, or have a rooftop or tower with a good view, we would like to hear from you.

Where we serve

MeshCore in the cities we serve

We have begun putting up repeaters in the cities our clients run in — our own coverage is early and still limited, and we are steadily expanding it — so an outage or an environmental alarm can still reach us over the mesh. Here is where MeshCore stands in each, and where we add to it. We advertise these pages on the repeaters themselves.

MeshCore in Calgary

Calgary is our home base and has a thriving MeshCore community, including YYC MeshCore and live coverage on meshmonitoring.com. It is where our first repeaters are already going in, though our own coverage is still limited, so client alerts increasingly have a path even when the internet is down.

MeshCore in Calgary →

MeshCore in Edmonton

Edmonton’s mesh is run by the yegmesh.ca community. Repeaters we add along the Calgary–Edmonton corridor keep northern client sites reachable during an outage.

MeshCore in Red Deer

Central Alberta’s Red Deer anchors the QEII corridor. We favour repeater sites here that link our Calgary and Edmonton coverage into one resilient path.

MeshCore in Lethbridge

Southern Alberta runs on YQLMesh. Repeaters we place around Lethbridge stretch out-of-band coverage across the south for clients far from the city core.

MeshCore in Grande Prairie

Grande Prairie’s Peace Country has little MeshCore coverage today. For remote client infrastructure up here, an off-grid alert path matters most, so it is a priority for our repeaters.

MeshCore in Grande Prairie →

MeshCore in Whitecourt

Whitecourt sits on the Highway 43 route north. A solar repeater here bridges a long, thinly-covered stretch and keeps energy- and forestry-sector sites on the mesh.

MeshCore in Whitecourt →

MeshCore in Vancouver

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are covered by CascadiaMesh. For our Vancouver clients, repeaters we add contribute back to an already-strong regional mesh.

MeshCore in Mississauga

Mississauga and the GTA are served by the Southern Ontario mesh community. Repeaters here keep Peel-region client server rooms reachable when their connection drops.

Community directories: AlbertaMesh, MeshCore Canada, and the official MeshCore project. We take part in these communities; we do not speak for them.

Frequently asked questions

What is MeshCore?: MeshCore is an open, community radio mesh built on LoRa. It carries small messages across long distances on very little power, keeps working without internet or mains power, and grows as people add nodes and repeaters. It belongs to its community, not to any one company. ThreeShield is a participant, not an owner.
Why does a security firm use a radio mesh?: Because the moment a client most needs to hear from their systems is often the moment the internet or the power is down, which is exactly when network-based monitoring goes silent. We use MeshCore as an out-of-band path so an outage or an environmental alarm, like a flooding server room, still reaches us and the client. It rides Lavawall Sentinel, the outage and environmental monitoring we deploy (now in limited early release).
Are you a good citizen of the mesh?: We try to be. Our footprint is deliberately light: short, occasional alerts rather than a constant stream, so we take very little of the shared airtime. We do not use the community mesh as free backhaul for bulk data, and our systems stay quiet until something genuinely needs attention.
Does your traffic put client data or the mesh at risk?: No. Every message carries Lavawall encryption and hash verification on top of MeshCore's own protections, so the contents are private and cannot be altered or spoofed. Nothing readable about a client ever lands on the shared mesh, and because our messages are small and rare they do not crowd out other members.
How do you give back to the mesh?: We deploy repeaters, including solar-powered ones, and we place them where they help more than just us: in underserved areas that need coverage and along the paths between our clients and the wider mesh. A repeater we raise for our own reliability carries other people's messages too, so extending the mesh for our clients extends it for the community.
Can I host a repeater or coordinate coverage with you?: Yes. If you have a good location, want to host a repeater, or want to coordinate coverage in your area, get in touch. We would rather work with local mesh communities than around them.
Do your clients have to use MeshCore?: No. It only comes into play with Lavawall Sentinel, as the backup path that keeps alerts flowing when a site's internet or power is down, with Meshtastic as a further fallback. Everything else ThreeShield and Lavawall do runs over the internet as usual.
Which cities do you run MeshCore repeaters in?: We have begun deploying repeaters, and our own coverage is early and still limited. It starts in Calgary, our home base, and we are expanding to the other cities we serve: Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Whitecourt, Vancouver, and Mississauga. We deliberately target underserved areas like Grande Prairie and Whitecourt where MeshCore coverage is still thin.
Is there MeshCore coverage in Calgary?: Yes. Calgary has one of Alberta's most active MeshCore communities, including the YYC MeshCore group, with live coverage on meshmonitoring.com. Calgary is our home base and the first place we have begun putting up our own repeaters, though that coverage is still limited and growing.
Is there MeshCore in Edmonton, Red Deer, or Lethbridge?: Yes. Edmonton's mesh runs through the yegmesh.ca community, Lethbridge through YQLMesh, and Red Deer anchors the QEII corridor between the two. Repeaters we place in these cities add to the existing Alberta mesh.
What about MeshCore in Grande Prairie and Whitecourt?: Both have little documented MeshCore coverage today, which is why we prioritize them. For remote client sites in the Peace Country and along the Highway 43 corridor, an off-grid alert path matters most, so these are priorities for our repeaters, including solar ones.
Do you cover MeshCore in Vancouver or Mississauga?: Yes. Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are covered by CascadiaMesh, and Mississauga sits within the Greater Toronto Area mesh. Where we serve clients in those cities, repeaters we add contribute back to the community mesh already there.
What hardware do I need to join MeshCore?: A LoRa radio node: a handheld companion device for messaging, or a fixed repeater with a good antenna to extend coverage. The MeshCore Canada community maintains recommended hardware lists and a flasher tool. Clients we monitor do not need their own node, because the Lavawall Sentinel hardware we deploy already includes the MeshCore path.
What frequency does MeshCore use in Canada, and is it legal to run?: MeshCore in Canada runs on the licence-exempt LoRa ISM band, with a community baseline preset around 910.525 MHz (62.5 kHz bandwidth, spreading factor 7, coding rate 5). It is licence-free, and each operator is responsible for legal frequencies, power, antennas, and duty cycle in their location. Confirm the current preset on the MeshCore Canada site.
How far does MeshCore reach?: It depends on antenna quality, height, terrain, and line of sight. A handheld indoors may cover a neighbourhood; a well-placed outdoor repeater can reach many kilometres, and the mesh extends that as each repeater relays messages. Good repeater sites are what make the network reliable.
How do I check MeshCore coverage or get involved in my area?: Browse the MeshCore Canada province directory and regional community sites like AlbertaMesh, yegmesh.ca, and YQLMesh, join the community forum or a provincial Discord, and pick up a companion device. If you can host a repeater in a good location you extend coverage for everyone. We are happy to coordinate with local operators, and if you want to host a repeater or improve coverage where we serve clients, contact us.
How does Sentinel reach you when a client's internet or power is down?: Sentinel tries several paths in order and falls through to the next if one is unavailable: the wired network (USB or Ethernet) first, then MeshCore, the long-range community radio mesh our repeaters run on, and finally Meshtastic, a second independent LoRa mesh, as a last resort. Because its devices are battery-backed and its radio path does not need the internet or mains power, an outage or a flooding server room still reaches us and the client during the outage.
Does Sentinel use cellular, and are there monthly SIM or data fees?: The standard hardware does not use cellular, so there are no per-device SIM cards and no monthly carrier data charges, unlike cellular out-of-band appliances that bill a recurring fee per device. The out-of-band path is license-free LoRa radio (MeshCore, with Meshtastic as a fallback), and cellular is available as a custom option only where a client specifically wants it. In most locations MeshCore is also more reliable during a widespread outage, when cell networks tend to congest or fail.
Do you deploy Meshtastic repeaters as well as MeshCore?: Our repeater network is primarily MeshCore, which is what we build and contribute back to the community. In regions that are not built out with MeshCore yet, we also deploy Meshtastic repeaters as a stopgap so client sites still have an out-of-band path, and we move them onto MeshCore as coverage grows. The Sentinel hardware we deploy can use either mesh, with MeshCore preferred.
Is Lavawall Sentinel available yet?: Sentinel is in limited early release: Lavawall is onboarding a small number of sites at a time, and we deploy and support it for our clients as part of that program. If you want out-of-band and environmental monitoring for your server rooms, contact us and we will get you into the early-access program and map out coverage for your sites.
What can Sentinel monitor in a server room when the network or power is out?: Outages (internet, DNS, server, and power) and environmental and physical conditions: temperature, humidity, water and flooding, smoke, carbon monoxide, motion or people in a room that should be empty, doors left open, and unauthorized access. Because the devices are battery-backed and report over radio, these alerts reach us during the very outage that silences network-based monitoring. See Lavawall Sentinel for the full detail.

Work with us on the mesh

Host a repeater, coordinate coverage in your area, or ask about Lavawall Sentinel, the outage and environmental monitoring that rides this mesh when everything else is down.

Get in touch about MeshCore Lavawall on MeshCore →

On the mesh, lightly,and we help extend it.