Introduction to the Mesh
Getting online in Eclipse Phase is easy -- everyone and everything is meshed, all the time. Most transhumans get online via the mesh insert implants within their head. This headware enables them to network with other devices around them and store data and files. Best of all, it's all mentally controlled. You can browse mesh sites, play games, interface with gear, and talk with your friends, all within your head! Messages are mentally recorded in your voice (or another of your choosing) or transcribed into text, all without speaking aloud. Sensory input is routed through your mesh inserts directly into your brain and experienced as augmented reality.
You can also skin your perceptions with AR data, so that you always view the world with the hazy glow of a sunset in the background or experience it with your own personal soundtrack. Walls are never blank, and rooms never quiet, unless you want them to be. You can even mute or filter out things you don't want to see or hear.
Given that most mesh interactions take place within your head, face-to-face interactions via camera feeds are a thing of the past. Most people use an avatar to represent themselves online. Avatar customs differ, with some clades preferring a representation of your current morph, and others preferring a stylized icon that remains consistent throughout resleevings. Avatars are animated and designed to speak and emote with your personal mannerisms, though this may be customized.
Ectos
However, those without cranial computers and mesh inserts must rely on ecto devices for mesh access. These portable and flexible computers are typically worn as a bracelet or held as a tablet. They feature interactive holographic displays or transmit AR data to the user via worn glasses, contacts, and decorative ear pieces. Ectos are slower than mesh inserts; using them inflicts a -10 modifier to all mesh actions.
If you'd prefer to keep a low profile, you can go into privacy mode, which provides a small degree of anonymity. Privacy mode hides your social profile -- no one will be able to view your data, but they will still be able to anonymously ping and ding your rep scores. Privacy mode will also ask sensors and other devices to ignore and not track you, though depending on their configurations or AIs they may simply ignore this request. It applies a -30 modifier to [[Tracking|mesh tracking]] attempts. Privacy mode is considered rude or gauche in some circumstances. An option to allow authenticated police/security override this mode is legally required in some authoritarian jurisdictions, but it may be easily toggled off.
Mesh Topology
Though the mesh as a whole consists of innumerable devices all connected to the other devices around them, the actual layout is more complex. Many sub-networks exists within the mesh network itself
Slaved Devices
Some devices are slaved to others, so that any traffic and access attempts go through a single well-protected gateway node. For example, individual components of a security system (doors, sensors, etc.) are usually slaved to a central security node that serves as a chokepoint against anyone hoping to hack the system. All traffic to and from the slaved devices is routed through the master. This allows a slaved device to rely on the master's security features and active monitoring. Anyone that wants to connect to or hack into a slaved device is rerouted to the master for authentication and security scrutiny.
[!tip] Slaved devices automatically accept commands from their master device. This means that a hacker who penetrates a master system can legitimately access and issue commands to a slaved device, assuming their [[Devices#Accounts & Access Privileges|access privileges]] allow for it.
PANs: Personal Area Networks
Since many of the things you wear, carry, use or have implanted are meshed, it makes sense to network them together -- this is your PAN. Your mesh inserts (or ecto) act as that master hub of your network; your other devices are slaved. This means that anyone that wishes to access these devices must go through you (or your [[AIs & Muses|muse]]) first. You can interface with your PAN devices via AR and freely share data between them. You can share access to these devices with others on a temporary or permanent basis. On the flipside, anyone that hacks you will have access to your slaved devices.
VPNs: Virtual Private Networks
VPNs link together nodes via a point-to-point encrypted "tunnel" across the public mesh. This secure connection allows connected users to privately communicate and remotely share services and resources. VPNs enable mobile offices, social networks, tacnets, and other private networks to exist and function within the wider mesh.
In practical terms, VPNs offer better encryption than standard mesh traffic, making it difficult to [[Tracking#Physical Tracking|sniff]] your connections, though you can still be [[Tracking|tracked]]. If one of the nodes within the VPN is hacked, however, that traffic becomes vulnerable.
Tiered Systems
Hypercorp networks, habitats, and similar large systems operate on a tiered model. In order to access one particular device or network, you may first need to access the nodes or networks tiered above it. Nodes in a lower tier will only communicate with recognized devices in the tier above them. Usually the deeper you go, the harder the security gets. Tiered systems can sometimes be defeated with [[Devices#Spoofing|spoofing attacks]], by faking signals from a node in the tier above.
Air-Gapped Systems
The most heavily secured systems are air-gapped -- physically separated from the mesh. They may be hardwired, lacking wireless transceivers, or enclosed within radio-proof barriers. The only way to access such systems is physically, either directly plugging in, defeating the radio-blocking enclosure, or somehow attaching a wireless transceiver to the system.
Islands In The Net
The distance between habitats requires special consideration. A signal sent from the inner planets to a station in the Kuiper Belt, 50 AU from the sun, can take as long as 7 hours, traveling at the speed of light. This means that communications between habitats outside of your local region (any others within 50,0000 km) may suffer time lags of minutes or hours -- each way. This makes standard forms of communication (video calls and even messaging) a challenge, and means that news from afar is already old when it is received. In a sense, each region is its own island in the mesh. On planetary bodies like Mars, Venus, Luna, or Titan, "local" encompasses all of the habitats and linked mesh networks on that planetary body and in orbit.
If you wish to search the mesh or interact with someone or something outside of your region, the easiest method is to transmit a search ALI (usually a copy of your [[AIs & Muses|muse]]) or a fork. In this case, the transmission time is added to the adjusted timeframe of any task actions (i.e. searching the mesh of a station 10 light-minutes away adds 20 minutes as the AI is transmitted over and the results are transmitted back). Since long-distance communications are sometimes interfered with or bumped for higher-priority items, GMs can increase this time at their discretion. If the research involves correlation and fine-tuning the search parameters based on data accumulated from different locals, the timeframe may be exponentially increased due to the need for back-and-forth interaction.
Exoplanet meshes are even more removed. They can only be accessed in the short intervals when a pandora gate is opened to their location. Depending on the colony or importance of the gate-crashing mission, the time between connections may be days, weeks, or months.