Egypt Cuts the Net, Net Fights Back

GMGruman writes "Egypt's cutoff of the Net enrages the Netizenry, who are finding a bunch of ways — high tech and low tech — to fight back, from dial-up to ham radio, from mesh networks to Twitter. Robert X. Cringely shows how the Net war is being waged, and asks, Could it happen at home, too?" Sure, it could. On the same topic, reader dermiste writes "In reaction to the Egyptian government crackdown on the Internet, the French non-profit ISP French Data Network set up a dial-up Internet access. This way, anyone in Egypt who has access to a analog phone line and can call France is able to connect to the network using the following number: +33 1 72 89 01 50 (login: toto, password: toto)."

Comments

Re:What's the Catch?

[commodore6502]

I don't know why you're surprised. DIALUP internet only costs me $7/month. It's not that much of a burden for the Non-profit ISP to offer free access to egyptians. And the datarate is only ~30k via analog lines, so you could carry over 300 users in the space of one DSL or cable internet line.

Also:

We ought to start shipping the Egyptian citizens some guns. The only thing that will cure their ills is the same thing that cured the Czech Republic - several guns aimed at Nicolae Ceausescu's body. They even posted video of him gasping his last breath on the television and internet.