How Egypt Switched Off the Internet

[The Straight Story]

How Egypt Switched Off the Internet

...

But how did the government actually do it? Is there a big kill switch inside Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s office? Do physical cables have to be destroyed? Can a lockdown like this work?

Plenty of nations place limitations on communications, sometimes very severe ones. But there are only a few examples of regimes shutting down communications entirely — Burma’s military leaders notably cut connectivity during the protests of 2007, and Nepal did a similar thing after the king took control of the government in 2005 as part of his battle against insurgents. Local Chinese authorities have also conducted similar, short-lived blockades.

The OpenNet Initiative has outlined two methods by which most nations could enact such shutdowns. Essentially, officials can either close down the routers which direct traffic over the border — hermetically sealing the country from outsiders — or go further down the chain and switch off routers at individual ISPs to prevent access for most users inside.

In its report on the Burmese crackdown, ONI suggests the junta used the second option, something made easier because it owns the only two Internet service providers in the country.

http://gigaom.com/2011/01/28/how-egypt-switched-off-the-internet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OmMalik+%28GigaOM:+Tech%29&utm_content=Netvibes

[redwitch]

1. If the internet ever gets shut down here we need a plan:

Let's all meet at Olive Garden. They have the endless salad bowl and we can plan for what to do next!

[yourout]

2. I say we build our own wireless distribution system(WDS) using off the shelf hardware.....

and open source(Tomato, DDWRT,etc) firmware.

[kentauros]

10. What about BPL (Broadband over Powerlines)?

Is that a viable system as an alternative?

If you answer, don't assume I know anything about IT, telephony, et cetera ;)

[woo me with science]

4. ...

:rofl:

[malaise]

9. That's the one thing that will bring young people on the street

Shut off their cell phones, cut off social media and they will wake up and join the people's revolution! Go Egyptians!!

[Spike89]

15. Most "solutions" to a shutdown not fixes at all

Having wireless, Internet over power lines, or any other LAN or WAN network scheme won't make a bit of difference if the servers are offline.

[Maine_Nurse]

22. There was still limited internet access after their "shutdown"

On another board, we had a member over there still posting for a while after the official shutdown, until he was called into the Embassy. Apparently some of the American businesses over there had their own networks operating independently of the Egyptian providers. After that poster left, some members brought up HAM systems and still communicated fine with Egyptians.

[Marblehead]

3. if we all had

bullhorns we could pass messages along

[ProdigalJunkMail]

5. In Egypt there were four or five providers

and a phone call is all it takes. "Cut the lines now, or when this is over you will be out of the country with no access to our markets."

In the US...there are about 1500 providers.

A little more difficult...

sP

[Tx4obama]

6. Do like in the old days... ham radios. n/t

[The Straight Story]

7. Like this?:

[DearAbby]

8. CB's

Come back good buddy. :shrug:

[The Straight Story]

11. That's a big 10-4, and here is a song/video fer ya good buddy: (yeah, it's convoy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5RI30RJIPk&feature=related

[kentauros]

12. Also, Low-Power Radio

http://lowpowerradio.blogspot.com :)

[japple]

13. Yodeling

[Tx4obama]

14. Indian smoke signals :)

[Crabby Appleton]

18. semaphore flags

[Major Hogwash]

16. ". . hermetically sealing the country from outsiders."

I feel that way sometimes, hermetically sealed.
It bothers me because then later on, I itch.

[Matariki]

17. Isn't if funny how those in power want to control communication between people?

Not really funny. It just always strikes me as very evil - trying to control what people say to each other. I just heard an NPR program on the Haitian music known as Rara - Rara groups march through the streets during Carival and their lyrics can often be political. The program talked about how, in times of political upheaval in Haiti, the police would follow the Rara bands and if they were singing anti-govenment songs they would beat the musicians and crowds. I mean, fucking hell - beat someone for singing words?

[undergroundpanther]

20. Yes

Because if we communicate we will see a common source of our woes and gain solidarity against those who oppress us and it makes it more difficult to sow divisions and diversions that tend to divide us..

[Monk06]

19. It might be argued that cutting off the ability of the people to communicate drove them into the

streets and intensified the protests. Just a thought

[cascadiance]

21. Could they shut off satellite cell phones?

Does a ground station need to be involved with that traffic? If not, then perhaps they could use a satellite phone and connect that way?

And what about the old CB Radios or a similar device? Something like that could send something over the border to another country and get it relayed.