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Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

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Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#21

Post by jacquesm »

Any government currently in power will have an item in its playbook titled 'shut down public internet access', right next to a folder labeled 'island mode' and 'totally dark'.

Some will be upfront about it, some will be more circumspect but media control has long been one of the central points in crowd control and just like newspapers, radio and TV stations are with some regularity taken over by the government (Italy is a special case here I guess...) when it is in distress you can expect the internet as a major mass communications medium to be viewed much the same way.

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#22

Post by kmfrk »

csomar wrote: post #7
dmpatierno wrote: post #2

Update: It's not everywhere. A foreign journalist at the Semiramis Intercontinental hotel says he has internet access.

It doesn't need to be everywhere, because protests happens like waves. So they cut the Internet (and probably SMS) for a particular region, so that information can't spread to other locations of Egypt.

And even better if some people don't notice the regional outage.

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#25

Post by zeteo »

nkassis wrote: post #5
martinkallstrom wrote: post #3

This is the infowar at close range. Contrary to the gut reaction of most commenting on the unfolding of events in Egypt, the reason for the regime to shut down communications has little to do with stopping information to reach the outside world. It is information getting into the country that is of real danger to them, such as the AP video of a man getting shot today. They are shutting down the Internet (As confirmed…

Except now they pissed off all 20 million (the guardian has a nice chart at the end of their article that states this) internet users. We will have to see but I think tomorrow's planed move will just have gotten bigger because of this move.

Yeah, especially considering that the masses' opium used to be religion, but now it's Internet porn.

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#26

Post by seancron »

jacquesm wrote: post #21

Any government currently in power will have an item in its playbook titled 'shut down public internet access', right next to a folder labeled 'island mode' and 'totally dark'. Some will be upfront about it, some will be more circumspect but media control has long been one of the central points in crowd control and just like newspapers, radio and TV stations are with some regularity taken over by the government (Italy…

Which makes me wonder, is there a way to make an ad-hoc, decentralized internet that a government could not shut down?

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#27

Post by DanielBMarkham »

seancron wrote: post #26
jacquesm wrote: post #21

Any government currently in power will have an item in its playbook titled 'shut down public internet access', right next to a folder labeled 'island mode' and 'totally dark'. Some will be upfront about it, some will be more circumspect but media control has long been one of the central points in crowd control and just like newspapers, radio and TV stations are with some regularity taken over by the government (Italy…

Which makes me wonder, is there a way to make an ad-hoc, decentralized internet that a government could not shut down?

Yes. They're called mesh networks, and I think you've just described why they will never take off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#28

Post by seancron »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #27
seancron wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes me wonder, is there a way to make an ad-hoc, decentralized internet that a government could not shut down?

Yes. They're called mesh networks, and I think you've just described why they will never take off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

Interesting. Are there any pieces of software that can transform ordinary laptops/phones into mesh networks?

A quick search shows B.A.T.M.A.N. (http://www.open-mesh.org/), but it looks a little tricky to setup. Are there any simple ways for non-technical users to run a mesh network node? A "click to install and run" solution would be ideal, but I'd be interested in hearing about other people's experiences with mesh networks.

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#29

Post by jacquesm »

seancron wrote: post #28
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They're called mesh networks, and I think you've just described why they will never take off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

Interesting. Are there any pieces of software that can transform ordinary laptops/phones into mesh networks? A quick search shows B.A.T.M.A.N. ( http://www.open-mesh.org/ ), but it looks a little tricky to setup. Are there any simple ways for non-technical users to run a mesh network node? A "click to install and run" solution would be ideal, but I'd be interested in hearing about other people's experiences with mesh…

Open wrt support mesh networking iirc.

There is also this:

http://www.wing-project.org/

And a bunch of others.

Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)

#30

Post by jasongullickson »

Zak wrote: post #18

I read this, and become more concerned about bills to give the US President an Internet kill-switch. They say it's to protect against cyber-warfare, but something makes me think it's just as likely to be applied to civil unrest, and civil unrest doesn't usually happen unless there's something pretty wrong with the government.

Right, what attack causes more of an outage than pulling the plug?
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