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Syria Drops Off the Internet Grid
hypnosec writes "Amidst the ongoing civil war, Syria has gone off the Internet as of a few hours ago, with all the 84 IP block within the country unreachable from the outside. Renesys, a research firm keeping tabs on the health of the Internet, reported at about 5:25 ET that Syria's Internet connectivity has been shut down. The internet traffic from outside to Syrian IP addresses is going undelivered, and anything coming from within the country is not reaching the Internet. Akamai has tweeted that its traffic data supports what Renesys has observed."
Reader trickstyhobbit adds a report from Slate that the connection "appear[s] to have been knocked off line by heavy fighting earlier this morning. They are also reporting that the shutdown may have been intentional to aid in a government operation."
Maybe Syria doesn't need to come back, or if it does, maybe not with a full block. IPv4 addresses are valuable!
A communication disruption can only mean one thing.
For those of you who think the internet is some magically self-healing construct immune to accidental or intentional disconnection of nodes and subnetworks, this should serve to show that if you aren't in charge over the physical infrastructure, you are at the mercy of those who are.
The fight other fights are named after. Yes, this is the worst misuse of the word "eponymous" on the internet. Congratulations are in order.
of my favorite (most hated) phrase: "The [I]nternet is down(1!1!)".
I usually think to myself "yes, the entire Internet. Gone. The bastards finally did it".
Syrian government has been threatening cutoff for a while. My money says this is no accident.
Deja Moo: The distinct feeling that you've heard this bull before.
I CAN'T GET TO LOLGOATS!
Some of whom may be heavily bearded men who think that democracy is filth.
Democracy is filth - people cannot be trusted to run a non-corrupt one (c.f. The Law). Of course, Theocracy is not better.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The whole of the Middle East and Most of Africa are in the slow zone.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Gosh folks, this is really Syria's.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It was encoded into the very Internet. That will teach them to try and mess with artifacts in the Low Transcend that they don't understand.
You just want www.pus.sy
Or the Symbionese Libation Army?
John
Syria isn't Afghanistan. They may not be Europe or the US, but they do have urban centers with modern amenities. Those amenities simply don't penetrate very far outside those areas.
“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
-Winston Churchill
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Cellular is just a last mile solution to reach the mobile devices. The actual infrastructure that carries data between cells is primarily a physical network, generally fiber, with some copper to older towers. It's not going to do much to get data in and out of the country if Syrian Telecommunications has shut off the network.
Unless you were just trying to make a joke. In that case, keep trying. Eventually you might.
John
Looks intentional: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/29/syria-blocks-internet
I'm no HAM operator, logic goes to say that some smart HAM operator in the 21st century should have figured out ethernet over HAM. too lazy to google.
Packet radio is plenty common and widely used (well for Amateur Radio definitions of widely). Usually you do SLIP not ethernet, as that would be lots of extra overhead pushing ether frames back and forth for no good reason.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
Yes, the trick is how to get people to be allowed to try other methods when all the land on Earth is claimed by groups that profess exclusive ownership.
The Tannehills had some intriguing proposals in the 1970's. Bob Murphy has expanded on some of those.
They might not all work, but one thing is for sure - if nobody is allowed to try other methods, a superior method will never be found. Many people suffer from chronological ethnocentrism - the idea that the current society is the best possible one (or at least the best that's ever existed).
Asking democracies to democratically give up democracy is a logical paradox.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
i'm sorry, but that's some really ignorant crap you believe
the only valid form of government is a form of government that submits itself to the will of the people it rules. self rule. it doesn't get better than that. now there can be a better KIND of democracy, i buy that, like say virtual democracy. virtual democracy has problems, but i'm willing to believe there's still a better form of democracy out there
but what i don't buy are these bullshit concepts where government is somehow dissolved and everything is shiny happy land. fucking bullshit. people need government. you heard me: people need government. without it, it's just rule by the guy with the biggest group of friends with the biggest guns. if you don't understand that, you don't understand much and should refrain from having cotton headed naive ideas that ignore basic human psychology and certain ugly, unremoveable aspects of basic human character
there's always been utopianists, in ever era, in every land. i suppose we have to suffer the fools
now mod me down for not putting up with the aspergers socially stunted anarchist/ no government/ free market fundamentalist morons. you heard me. now give me my -1
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Dude, curse you! you made me spit out my banana cream pie at my waitress.
Not your typical Syria-related locale but yes, busted. Hmmm, goat-cheese falafel factory.