Good news! We've updated our hosting agreement Terms of Service to clarify & simplify our Host referral program. You can find the Host Terms of Service v1.4 for both our Freemium & Premium hosting options now at https://www.internetofwe.net/terms

Note that only previously approved hosts will be eligible for these referrals; if you're not yet a host, we encourage you to apply with as many host locations as you like!

Each approved & active (currently hosting at least 1 IoWE hotspot) Host will receive a code, which will [when used as captured below from the IoWE Discord] entitle the referring approved Host 10% of the referred party's hosted hotspot rewards each period!

(Minimal terms apply; see terms as cited above for details.)

Thanks for reading, everyone! Be sure to show off your #PurplePride with one of our made-to-order IoWE T-Shirts! And as always, thanks for helping build #ThePeoplesNetwork!

I'll start out by citing the resource I'll be referencing directly from Helium docs:

https://docs.helium.com/troubleshooting/understanding-witnesses/

This explainer is already just about as good as it gets, but I'll attempt to add some additional motivating context & summarize here.

What does "Relayed" mean?

Essentially when a hotspot is relayed it means that it is having a harder time communicating with its peers (other hotspots). As a result, it will have a lower success rate in completing various aspects of PoC (Proof of Coverage). This communication among and between hotspots is what helps PoC validate & authenticate hotspot placement & reward the most valuable installations accordingly. If you are unable to successfully complete PoC activity, you will earn less rewards as a result.

Before we attempt to resolve the issue, first it helps to understand the context of how PoC activity functions and how it relates to Relayed status.

Beaconing : The Backbone of PoC

What is beaconing?

Beaconing is the central component that all aspects of rewarded PoC activity revolve around. A beacon is initiated when a challenger hotspot issues a challenge to another hotspot on the network (the transmitter or challengee) to prove that it is providing coverage where it says it is & demonstrate the quality of its coverage. Each hotspot should construct & send a challenge to another random hotspot about once every 300 blocks -- or about 5 hours.

When a hotspot is challenged, it will beacon [or transmit] a signal to the surrounding area; any surrounding hotspots that are able to receive the transmission (witness the beacon) send receipts that they witnessed said beacon back to the challenger hotspot. So there are 3 components to the hotspots involvement in the PoC process:

1. Challenger - Initiates the challenge to Challengee/Transmitter to beacon.
2. Challengee (Transmitter) - Transmits the beacon when challenged.
3. Witnesses - Receives the beacon transmission and reports back to the challenger.

How does beaconing relate to the Relayed status?

This is where the Helium docs we mentioned at the start of the post are especially useful. Now that we have the backing context of PoC and beaconing covered, if you reference the above docs link, you'll find visual illustrations on how this affects each of the 3 components of PoC activity (Challenger, Challengee/Transmitter, Witnesses).

How to fix it

To resolve the Relay status and ensure your hotspot has the best possible connection to communicate with other hotspots and earn as much as possible, there is one main thing you'll need to accomplish: Port Forwarding (Port 44158). To do this you will need to access the admin settings on the router your hotspot is connected to the internet with.

This can be a bit tricky, because every ISP (Internet Service Provider) is different; most providers have their own dashboard or user interface, and Port Forwarding settings are found in different places according to your provider. You will also need to know the credentials to login to your router's admin settings, which you may or may not have knowledge of.

• If you do know your router's admin settings credentials:

Your best option will be to Google "[your ISP] port forwarding". This should help you find where port forwarding settings are in your provider's settings.

• If you do not know your router's admin settings credentials:

Your best option will be to contact your service provider and inform them that you need to port forward and need your router's admin panel credentials. They should be able to at minimum provide these for you, if not walk you through how to set up the port forward.

Finally, a video from Jimmy is Promo on how to address relay, if that's more your style:

There's been much concern & controversy around hex density & the Transmit Scale assigned to each hotspot, and -- in my opinion -- it's been overstated, oversimplified, and misunderstood. I'm going to attempt to explain why I think so in this post. There are a lot of moving parts to consider here, so bear with me if things get a bit complicated.

First, context

The Helium network as a whole is purpose-built for primarily one thing: data transfer. We also need to understand and consider that Proof of Coverage exists first and foremost as an incentive mechanism to develop and grow the network; over time, the network reward structure will incrementally shift to data transfer as opposed to PoC rewards.

This is important context to consider whether you have a short or long view perspective. In the long term, it helps to understand that what should be emphasized is witnessing not being witnessed for optimal data transfer rewards. Put another way, it's more valuable to hear than to be heard. In the short term, this perspective helps you understand the network (including PoC) is optimizing for and rewarding according to the latter long term incentives -- why is this important even for short-term interest? Let's look at PoC rewards.

PoC carries a bias

Data transfer can be bi-directional (transmit/receive); however, MOST of the expected network traffic is relaying/routing received data [from IoT sensors, etc.], at least with the current "IoT" hotspots (5G is another story; you can read more about that directly from Helium CEO Amir Haleem here).

Having said that, the network economics value hotspots optimizing to best RECEIVE data [witnessing transmissions] over optimizing to best TRANSMIT data ["beaconing"] by 4x:

The entire PoC system is designed to both prove a check of authenticity (prove that you are where you say you are -- 1 through 3 in the above graphic) and as a "calibration" mechanism to incentivize the best placement (coverage area) and performance (data throughput -- 3 & 4 in the above graphic).

We've established that the data throughput is more valuable in the receiving direction than in the transmitting direction [for the purposes of IoT applications], and that it follows that witnessing other hotspots is more valuable than other hotspots witnessing you. This is where the Transmit Scale comes in.

Transmit Scale relates to beaconing

The Transmit Scale that you see for each hotspot on the Helium Explorer is only related to its own beacons -- #2 in the previous diagram above. This means the only time it comes into play are when the hotspot in question is challenged and transmits a beacon. this accounts for just 5% of the rewards available. What should really be more of an emphasis is what the Transmit Scales of the surrounding area hotspots are, and this is ultimately really out of an individual's control, outside of coordinated cluster placements.

For an even more in-depth understanding of the particular HIPs relating to hex density, check out the video below for an explanation direct from Helium:

Want to witness even more hotspots? Try an upgraded antenna! Install outdoors where possible, and as high up as you can manage -- the higher the better! #LineOfSight