This needs a port forwarded to whatever machine runs rnsd, and reachable_on = your.name.or.ip:4242 set on the interface so your announce tells the network where to knock — the same field this node's own config carries for ns.arborisis.com If port-forwarding is not yours to do — a shared connection, a CGNAT, a router you cannot touch — I2P sidesteps it entirely:

An I2PInterface with no peers line is a *listening* one: rns asks your local i2pd or Java I2P router (SAM bridge enabled) for a destination and tunnel, and announces that instead of a hostname. No port to open, no NAT to fight — this node's own I2P door works the same way, and its trade-off is the same too: tunnels take a minute or two to come up, and the link carries less than TCP. That is enough for pages and mail, which is most of what a relay is asked to carry.

A brand-new relay has no peers yet: it must wait for organic discovery, or you can bootstrap it by adding this node as a client interface too, alongside your own — the same stanza the Connect page gives to anyone who only wants to be a client. That gives your gateway a path onto the wider network from the moment it starts, and gives everyone already reachable through it a path to whatever you are relaying for — a LoRa link, a local mesh, a room full of laptops with no other way out.

A relay that only forwards paths is already useful. One that also runs lxmd becomes a second Belgian place for offline mail to wait — propagation nodes sync with each other automatically, so running your own does not fragment the network, it makes it more redundant. The same is true of a hub (rrcd) or a page server (nomadnet): none of it is required to count as a relay, all of it adds something the network did not have before you.

Two things happen once your node is discoverable, and they cost you nothing to arrange:

- It appears on https://rmap.world by itself — that map is built entirely from announces, not from a registry anyone maintains.

- It can appear on this node's own Belgium page too, next to Arborisis Belgium — but that one is curated by hand, on purpose: sign the guestbook with your node's name, region and address, and it is added from there. No form, no account, nothing automatic to get wrong — the same reasoning as the guestbook itself.

Not a partnership, not a federation, not anything that needs our agreement. A relay you run stays yours — your machine, your identities, your uptime, your rules about who you let through. This node forwards for you and you for it only because Reticulum makes that the default shape of the network, not because either side asked.