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A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

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Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#21

> WireGuard uses UDP and a small handshake footprint, making detection and blocking via DPI harder. Not quite true. Wireguard is already actively detected and suppressed if necessary. There's already a fork that employs basic changes to improve the protocol in this regard. AmneziaWG was shown to be more robust to detection for now. https://docs.amnezia.org/documentation/amnezia-wg/ Too bad managing WG is such a pain…

At Obscura we just tunnel WireGuard over QUIC's unreliable datagram mechanism to make it look like HTTP/3 (for DPI): https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client/b...

We just upstreamed our patch to quinn-rs that pads Datagrams to MTU: https://github.com/quinn-rs/quinn/pull/2274

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#22

I wish this article went into more details on what the "National Information Network" is. I would guess it's at least a set of nationally managed DNS servers that will always resolve national IPs even if upstream global DNS is cut off. Looking at a bigger picture though, honestly I think we're seeing the end of the raw global Internet for the masses. 20 years ago, it seemed impossible, but here we are. It's simply no…

> Looking at a bigger picture though, honestly I think we're seeing the end of the raw global Internet for the masses. 20 years ago, it seemed impossible, but here we are. This is defeatist. You're probably right 'for the masses' but there will always be those networking and collaborating and bypassing whatever restrictions get put in place. I have online contacts in 'firewalled' regimes that use v2ray/shadowsocks or…

>there will always be those networking and collaborating and bypassing whatever restrictions get put in place.

I don't think so. It's just a question of the severity of the punishment for violating regulations. A couple of small fines for an unlicensed networking and collaborating - and there will be no one left.

>There's a ton of cheap tools now that can be used for running local or citywide networks, hams have their own packet radio stuff.

The issue has never been in the technical plane. The equipment for building and operating networks has become dozens of times more accessible over the past couple of decades. The problem is in the increasing number of regulations that purposefully lock all clients into a few select controlled service providers. They have a goal and they have the tools to achieve it, so it's only a matter of time before they reach the minority of network-enthusiasts.

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#23

I wish this article went into more details on what the "National Information Network" is. I would guess it's at least a set of nationally managed DNS servers that will always resolve national IPs even if upstream global DNS is cut off. Looking at a bigger picture though, honestly I think we're seeing the end of the raw global Internet for the masses. 20 years ago, it seemed impossible, but here we are. It's simply no…

The only way to have global uncensored sharing of information is shortwave radio. Always has been, always will be.

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#24

I wish this article went into more details on what the "National Information Network" is. I would guess it's at least a set of nationally managed DNS servers that will always resolve national IPs even if upstream global DNS is cut off. Looking at a bigger picture though, honestly I think we're seeing the end of the raw global Internet for the masses. 20 years ago, it seemed impossible, but here we are. It's simply no…

The only way to have global uncensored sharing of information is shortwave radio. Always has been, always will be.

Triangulation exists to locate such stations

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to have global uncensored sharing of information is shortwave radio. Always has been, always will be.

Triangulation exists to locate such stations

Did I say untraceable?

You’ll be found on the internet too btw. But far more easily.

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#26

> WireGuard uses UDP and a small handshake footprint, making detection and blocking via DPI harder. Not quite true. Wireguard is already actively detected and suppressed if necessary. There's already a fork that employs basic changes to improve the protocol in this regard. AmneziaWG was shown to be more robust to detection for now. https://docs.amnezia.org/documentation/amnezia-wg/ Too bad managing WG is such a pain…

At Obscura we just tunnel WireGuard over QUIC's unreliable datagram mechanism to make it look like HTTP/3 (for DPI): https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client/b... We just upstreamed our patch to quinn-rs that pads Datagrams to MTU: https://github.com/quinn-rs/quinn/pull/2274

Some DPIs just flat out block HTTP/3 already.

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#27
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hams have their own packet radio stuff We got basically three different things. First we got APRS, mostly used for position reports (go on aprs.fi for a map). That is pretty nice but unusable for anything more than a SMS worth of things, and you need repeaters and not just internet gateway collectors to actually have something that's resilient. Next thing is AX25, the technical foundation behind APRS. Yes you can u…

Am I right to assume that it's easy to locate the source of ham radio signals? i.e. if there's a blanket ban, can you use your radio hidden in your house or can the government easily find out that the user they've noticed on the airwaves is located there and knock down your door?

It's very easy, has been for a long time. See the story of Israeli Eli Cohen, an operative in Syria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen

Re: A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

#30

How do people do this in China?

this is much more severe than in China. I've never been completely shut of Internet before. each time one of my servers had access to global Internet. this time no connection whatsoever. I hope people realise that encryption needs transmission, with no wire to transfer data encryption won't help you
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