An apparatus includes a processing system configured to establish a link with any one of a plurality of access points in a mesh network, each of the access points providing the apparatus with a different data path through the mesh network. The natural joining request text contains as a table joining key the column public key and column private key that were generated by the encryption key from the table identifier of a first and second tables and the column identifier of the a-th column and b-th column. In some embodiments, the first computing device provides the second computing devices with actions or commands relating to data delivery based on the device state. The first diagnostic switch closes during a first diagnostic waveform phase and opens during all other phases of operation.