The mesh is growing in Brisbane and SEQ, and with it, so are the number of repeaters, companions and other parts of the mesh.
The way MeshCore devices communicate is through a "path hash", which historically was a one-byte ID for each repeater or companion. So, one device might have an ID of be. There are 256 different IDs, and this is fine until there are lots of devices on the mesh, where suddenly there are other devices called be.
Our recommendation is to support 2-byte path hashes on companions and repeaters. So, instead of having 256 different possible IDs like be, you now have 65,536 possible IDs, like be0a. This makes it much less likely for IDs to be re-used, and makes direct messaging and routing much more reliable.
The vast majority of repeaters in Brisbane and SEQ are now running firmware that understands 2-byte path hashes.
Here's more on the Meshcore.io wiki.
Here's the way to do it if you're using the official MeshCore app.
First, your repeater should be running v1.14 or higher of the firmware. We'd recommend the latest builds.
To change multi-byte settings, you'll need Command Line access to your repeater (typically through the MeshCore app's repeater admin tool), and send this command:
set path.hash.mode 1
and then reboot, remembering to sync your clock afterwards if you need to.
We would recommend checking our other settings recommendations while you're at it.
Our mesh is currently not interacting with meshes in NSW or the NT; and is not big enough, yet, to require region codes for companions.