Egyptians using Vancouver-based website to bypass Internet blocks

[JBoy]

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Egyptians+using+Vancouver+company+website+bypass+internet+blocks/4187839/story.html

VANCOUVER -- HootSuite, a Vancouver-based website that allows users to manage their social networking accounts, is reporting a seven-fold spike in new users from Egypt in the past two days after Egyptian authorities shut down Internet access and text messaging late Thursday amid mass political unrest.

HootSuite users were accessing the site by dialing in to a server in North America from their mobile phones.

“When we looked at the (web) traffic this morning the graph just went vertical,” said Dave Olson, marketing director for HootSuite, on Friday.

Olson said the company gained tens of thousands of new Egyptian users in two days after protests erupted against Egypt President Hosni Mubarak resulting in an unprecedented government shut down of Internet access. He estimated in December, before the spike, there were between 12,000 to 15,000 users in Egypt. That means the number has jumped to more than 80,000 this week.

---more

[Posteritatis]

1. Once again the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. (nt)

[lovuian]

11. yep

they just don't get it

the Internet is International

[ananda]

2. Wow.

...

[virgogal]

3. I haven't a clue how any of this works,or how the Egyptians

knew about it,but it is pretty amazing.

[Suich]

4. I don't know, either, and if I ask my

"computer guy," he'll explain it to me and I still won't understand!


:rofl:

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Once again, geeks rule.

So good to hear the ways to get around censorship.
I have no doubt that when the gov. here tries to pull the plug,
my kids ( the middle aged "kids"-lol)
will be in contact with me in about 30 minutes from across the country.

[virgogal]

6. Glad to know I am not alone. I can recite all the auxiliary

verbs by heart,though.

That's gotta count for something.

:-)

[starroute]

7. For one thing, Anonymous was working to get the word around

I assume the message below was intended for redistribution and can therefore be quoted in full:

http://wikileaks.blogsport.de/2011/01/29/18-ways-to-circumvent-the-egyptians-governments-internet-block/

18 Ways to Circumvent the Egyptians Governments‘ Internet Block

By: @AnonymousRx @Warintel

01] Nour DSL is still working in Egypt, Dial up with 0777 7776 or 07777 666

02] IP addresses for social media: pass on to people in #Egypt: Twitter: 128.242.240.52. Facebook: 69.63.189.34

03] How to circumvent the communications blackout in #Egypt http://slink.us?lr Arabic

04] #hamradio frequencies for #egypt http://slink.us?ls PLEASE SPREAD IRC: http://slink.us?lt

05] Ham Radio Software software for PC, Mac and Linux http://www.hamsphere.com Communicate w/ #egypt

06] TOR Bridge 189.129.67.78:443 04FD6AE46E95F1E46B5264528C48EA84DB10CAC4

07] There is an Old DSL Dialup 24564600

08] Send SMS reports to [phone] and they will retweet for you. Please spread to those in #Egypt on battlefield

09] #Egypt hams are on 7.050-7.200 MHz LSB

10] Egypt Gov only blocking by DNS. So for Twitter try 128.242.245.148 Facebook 69.63.189.11 Proxy

11] VPN Server http://texnomic.com/url/2L is now stable and open for FREE to ALL

12] Help the Egypt Revolutionaries by overcoming the Firewall https://www.accessnow.org/proxy-cloud

13] 0m band, 7.050-7.20­0 MHz LSB, 318.5 degrees (northwest­/north from cairo) Ham Radio Operators

14] We are now providing dialup modem service at [phone]. user/pass: telecomix/telecomix (only for #egypt, respect that PLEASE!).

15] People of Egypt ONLY! Use this dial-up provided by friends in France to go online: [phone] (login ‚toto‘ password ‚toto‘)

16] FREE VPN Server to bypass ANY Blockage on ANY ADSL or Cell Network. Domain: Cloud.Texnomic.com User: FreeEgypt Pass: #Jan25

17] Third party apps: Tweetdeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/ & Hootsuite http://hootsuite.com/ still work for updating Twitter

18] Follow @AnonymousRx

We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

Please help support #OpEgypt and join anonymous in IRC chat, you can use a secure web version of IRC called Mibbit @ http://slink.us?ll
Ask what you can do to help when in the chat channel, anonymous members are always willing to help out new members!

- @AnonymousRx

[virgogal]

8. My God,that is absolutely astonishing. Thank you so much.

I'll be reading this information all evening so my thick skull will let some of the info pass into my brain.

I especially loved their "mission" statement at the end.

Thanks again.

[drm604]

9. It always cracks me up when authorities try to shut something down by blocking it via DNS.

I don't understand what they're thinking.

They must have someone working for them who has a technical understanding of DNS, otherwise they couldn't block it, but if you have a technical understanding of DNS then you also know how futile it is to block it.

[Jefferson23]

10. K&R