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❓ How It Works

Every Micropelago network is composed of the personal computers and mobile devices of the network's members. The Isle application runs on each device in order to keep it joined to the network and provide any shared resources to the network.

Micropelago is explicitly designed to allow users to join multiple networks from the same device, allowing them to take part in multiple communities at the same time.

Understanding how a Micropelago network works first requires understanding how you will use it: either as a member, or as a keeper. A member simply joins a network and uses their devices to access its features. A network keeper provides the foundation which allows the network to exist. A keeper has one or more of their computers online at all times, and provides resources like disk space.

As a Member

Using Micropelago as a member only requires that you know someone who is already helping to keep a network, and who will allow you to join it. You will then follow a couple of simple steps.

1) Install the latest version of Isle.

2) The keeper will send you a file called the "bootstrap file", which acts as your invitation.

3) Join the network using the bootstrap file.

Easy peasy! You can turn your device on and off as you like and it will automatically keep itself joined to the network while it's on.

As a Keeper

A network keeper is someone who has committed some amount of their time and energy to keeping a network available for themselves and other members to use. Every network requires at least one keeper, but the more there are the better the network will run. Being a keeper requires a small amount of technical skill, but it is a threshold easily reached by someone who already has some other computer-related hobby (e.g. gaming, art/music, content creation...).

A keeper's responsibilities to a network include keeping a computer always-on, and providing storage allocations and/or a public address from that computer.

Always-On Computer

The primary responsibility of a keeper is to keep a home computer powered-on and connected to the internet as close to "always" as possible. Micropelago is designed to recover gracefully in the event of power and internet outages, but during these events the overall network might not function properly for other members. It is up to a network's keepers to work together to keep their computers online and healthy, and to remove computers from the network when this is not consistently possible.

Hard Drive Space

Every keeper can opt to allocate some amount of hard drive space from their computer to the network. Doing so is as easy as giving Isle a directory on the hard drive and telling it how much space you wish to allocate. Every network requires at least one storage allocation, but will work best with three or more.

Storage allocations are used by Micropelago to provide an automatically replicated network filesystem (NFS) to other members. This NFS is used as the foundation of all other features in Micropelago.

Public Address

Every Micropelago network requires at least one of its keepers to provide a public address, which coordinates (but does not proxy!) VPN traffic between devices on the Micropelago network. Providing an address requires very few resources, but more technical knowledge.

First the keeper must expose a network port on their computer to the public internet. A port is simply a number in the range 1024-65535 which is reserved for a specific service (Isle, in this case). On home networks this is accomplished by configuring the router/modem to forward the port, using the UDP protocol, to the always-on computer running Isle.

Port Forwarding – How to set it up

Second the keeper must have either a static IP at home, or set up dynamic DNS (dDNS). dDNS is recommended, as static IPs often require a paid upgrade with your ISP.

Dynamic DNS – What is it and How to use it

Creating a New Network

A new Micropelago network must be created by a keeper. The keeper must be able to provide all of:

Without all three of these the network will not be join-able by others. Creating the network is then quite simple:

1) Install the latest version of Isle.

2) Create the new network, configured with the required storage allocations and public address.

3) Create "bootstrap files" which allow other members and keepers to join the network.

Once the network is joined other keepers can add new storage allocations and public addresses.

Becoming a Keeper on an Existing Network

If a network has already been created then becoming a keeper is quite easy:

1) Install the latest version of Isle.

2) An existing keeper will send you a file called the "bootstrap file", which acts as your invitation.

3) Configure Isle with either a storage allocation or public address.

Keepers joining an existing network may or may not be able to create bootstrap files of their own to invite new members. This is decided by the keeper who invited the new one.