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Egyptians Find New Ways To Get Online
angry tapir writes "Groups like We Rebuild have scrambled to keep Egypt connected to the outside world, turning to landline telephones, fax machines and even ham radio to keep information flowing in and out of the country. Although one Internet service provider — Noor Group — remains in operation, Egypt's government abruptly ordered the rest of the country's ISPs to shut down their services just after midnight local time Thursday. Mobile networks have also been turned off in some areas."
A regime that tries to shut down all means for its population to communicate is one that does not deserve to continue.
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
Be nice if the united states supported the egyptian people.
Seems we're not really all that big on the whole 'freedom' thing after all... We're still hoping our bff stays in charge of egypt.
If egypt does get their freedom... I hope they remember we sold the egyptian goverment the weapons being used on civilians right now.
Sometimes the usa deserves the hate it gets. Ok.. most times... the us goverment anyway.
That's just short sighted biggotry, i hope your just trolling. I'd say that India is running a successful black country? being ~1 billion people in size they have to be doing something right.
Apparently, all the carrier pigeons have been reporting a Coo
GP is trolling, but calling India a "black country" is some serious wtf.
That's exactly what I thought too! Good ol' RFC1149.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Wired also has a wiki titled "Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet." It has some interesting thoughts on things like ad-hoc networking, satelite, and even packet radio.
This bit I found interesting: "Apple computers tend to have very accessible Ad-Hoc functionality built in, including a pre-installed chat client (iChat) that will automatically set up an Ad-Hoc "Rendezvous" chatroom between anybody on the network, without the need for an external service like AIM or Skype. Ad-hoc network hosting functionality is built in to the Wifi menu." On Windows PCs, it's almost as easy, but it requires software which is not installed by default.
Even oboma told there president he better change his ways or this would happen and well he didn't listion.(sic)
Actually it was Bush who said that :
Oddly enough--- only the last Administration with President Bush and Secretary Condi Rice has ever taken a strong reform position with Mubarak.
Obama has either been silent, or supportive of Egypt as it is - don't forget he went to Cairo to speak not that long ago.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So why aren't we all phoning a random number in Egypt once a day and asking if there's anything they want us to put on the interwebs for them?
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
In that case, our government seems to be sending a mixed message by adding the internet kill-switch back into proposed legislation...
Sensationalist headlines aside, care to point out where the aforementioned bill says anything about shutting down communications? From my reading its about isolating the networks on which high value infrastructure is located, not shutting down anyone's communication. More reading, less rhetoric please.
What you don't seem to get that is that "isolating the networks" is exactly how you shut down communications. How else would you do it, besides pulling the plug entirely?
Also, the other important piece here is that according to the blll, Judicial Review is explicitly denied
A company that objects to being subject to the emergency regulations is permitted to appeal to DHS secretary Janet Napolitano. But her decision is final and courts are explicitly prohibited from reviewing it.
So if anything can be declared "critical infrastructure" and isolated without benefit of the courts, any communication can be shut down. The attempt to avoid judicial review is on page 403 of the bill, if you care to read it yourself.
No, you'd need a SPAM radio for that
Ryans Tutorials - A collection of technology tutorials.
My understanding is that if you use a ham radio to [view] the internet you can't go to any web page with an [advertisement] on it.
In the US, at least, the regulations (FCC regulations Part 97.113 in the US) prohibit "communications in which the station licensee ... has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer..."
Viewing a web page that had a few ads over a D-Star or packet network is not a violation, but sending an advertisement, or solicitation would be against the regulations.
The biggest impediment to using the Internet over ham radio is the prohibition on encrypted content. So sending a PGP-encrypted message or viewing a website over HTTPS would be against the rules.
The distance record for directional wifi is over 300km. So the answer is to have Isp's fund a mobile relay station (land or sea) that sets up when the network goes down, outside the affected country/area, and then people can tune up their pringle's can antenna skills, or whatever to link up. This would be helpful with unintentional outages, like earthquakes or hurricanes, too. The mobile relay stations could be on call to get set up wherever they are needed rather than each Isp having to buy them.
Your mother is currently residing in my bed, performing fellatio on my wife.
Your wife is a tranny?
Ocean is land, covered with water.
Sorry, but the ISP's are run by people too - and they can end up on the streets just as easily. A company not only has to run by the law (and if the government says no, then that's your lot) but has to have people who will make those changes too. They can argue, they can try to change the law, they can stop doing business but it's not up to the ISP to try to be the last bastion of freedom in the country. It might be a *small* group of people who used to work at the ISP holding out but the ISP itself is just a virtual entity that has to obey the law if it wants to exist. It's the *people* that have to switch things off or on, and I don't expect any of them to stand up for my rights when the government is in such a state.
I *expect* the ISP's to co-operate with whatever they are made to do - either by law or by force - in order to protect their employees. Seen what happens in China if you decide that you *don't* want to follow their rules?
In the same way that when Russian submarines have their power turned off because the government hasn't paid its bill, I *EXPECT* the company to be forced to put the electric back on (as happened a few years ago) because someone is going to point a gun at them if they don't, and they are human too. I wouldn't expect there to be repercussions from the customers when such extremes of civil action take place.
Not everyone can be a hero, especially not over something so petty and transient in the middle of mass-rioting - and expecting everyone to be a hero basically makes "heroes" redundant. If someone points a gun at me, they will get what they want, unless that option is worse than death to me. A few million people being without the Internet *isn't* worse than death, despite what you might personally think.
The point is to make a system where NOBODY ever ends up pointing guns at you - i.e. a working government, a non-oppressive government, and a law where its completely illegal to do such things.
This is state censorship. If you live in that state, you have two choices - comply or risk persecution. Risking persecution is very heroic but for someone else's Internet connection, especially when you know it isn't going to stop anything? Pointless. This is why the Chinese are so "oppressed" - the "heroes" aren't shooting back, they are complying with every rule, being put under house arrest etc. It's that or be dead, in some cases. You can't make that choice for other people.
When someone points a gun at you, whether the switch in your ISP is on or off is the least important thing in the world. If it were a switch for a nuclear reactor that someone wants you to blow up, then you have a problem. Otherwise you just do what the man with the gun tells you. Or the several thousand men with guns who *will* come knocking if you don't.
Living in a reasonable country is an extreme luxury that most people in the world never experience. And it's all too easy to be the hero if you're not actually subject to the consequences. In the UK, the government tells the ISP's what to do. I damn well expect the ISP's to co-operate - it's not their domain to argue with the law, they are just a company. They can lobby for changes but if the law says that on 1st Jan the Internet goes off, I expect the Internet to go off.
When the anarchy breaks out and the government is replaced and the lawful decree goes out to turn things back on, then they can. But otherwise a company is just a law-abiding entity, or it's putting it's workers at risk (of just unemployment, or worse). If the US were to force your ISP to block all adult sites, are you going to blame the ISP or the government?
A good thing the french have set up a line for the egyptians to use, to offer free dial up...
Quick, we need to send them 1.5 million free-trial AOL CDs!