A method for communicating between mesh networks comprising: establishing a first tunnel to bypass a firewall, the bypass enabled by encapsulating first packets between a first backhaul node of a first local mesh network and a server, the first backhaul node of the first local mesh network having internet connectivity and receiving the first packets addressed to a destination not reachable by the first local mesh network without internet connectivity to a second local mesh network; establishing a second tunnel between a second backhaul node of a second local mesh network and the server, wherein the second backhaul node of the second local mesh network has internet connectivity; receiving at the server the encapsulated first packets from the first backhaul node via the first tunnel; and transmitting from the server the received encapsulated first packets to the second backhaul node of the second local mesh network.