Egypt Cuts the Net, Net Fights Back 232
Posted
by
timothy
from the let's-use-big-metaphors dept.
from the let's-use-big-metaphors dept.
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)."
What's the Catch? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:France has a non-profit ISP? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah it is an association where members split the overall cost of the network.
I'll possibly go with them eventually because other ISPs in france insist on making you pay for services you do not want, like TV...
Toto...?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Would that be a homage to the group Toto, "famous" for the song "Africa"?
It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never have
The Cringley article is crap. I want to know MORE (Score:4, Interesting)
Yesterday when I read that Egypt had pulled the plug on the internet the first thing that went through my mind was, 'the people will find a way.'. The second thing was, 'I can't wait to see how they do it. This is going to be fascinating.'. Since then I have been contemplating ad-hoc wireless networks and dialing into 56k modems thousands of miles away.
I have been chewing at the bit (haha! I made a pun!) for any information as to how this little project is proceeding.
The best Cringley's article can muster is a French company offering 56k access for free and the words, 'Wireless mesh network'. That is all fine and dandy.
I am happy and impressed that the French company is offering there resources to the Egyptian people. Big round of appluase for those guys. But the geek in me is not impressed. Dialing out of country to a 56k connection is just so bloody obvious. I want to know the bloody details of the wireless mesh. I want to know about the sap that has hacked his satelite dish to give internet access to his town.
I want more. It has to be out there.
Cairo residents opening home WiFi to protestors (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/egypt-protests-residents-open-wifi-networks-protestors-2751360.html [nowpublic.com]
I submitted a seperate story on this - before seeing this story.
Any ways - I think this gives greater significance to the WiFi p2p protocols - couple of links I can find in a rush:
http://netsukuku.freaknet.org/ [freaknet.org]
http://sourceforge.net/p/widi/home/ [sourceforge.net]
It's all shades of gray (Score:5, Interesting)
doesn't anyone want to talk about about the fact that the good old US of A is supporting a brutal regime that murders and tortures its own people?
If the USA didn't support any regime that murders and tortures its own people it would have very few relations to other countries. It's all a matter of proportion. Egypt is less brutal than other countries in that region, they have a relatively moderate stance regarding international relations, they try not to let Muslim radicals do too much harm.
Don't get me wrong, I think Mubarak should step down, but Obama is right in taking a cautious approach to that crisis.
Re:It's all shades of gray (Score:5, Interesting)
If the USA didn't support any regime that murders and tortures its own people.......
It doesn't just support them politically it actually trains their police how to do this: Leaked U.S. Military Manual:
How to Train Death Squads and Quash Revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq. [informatio...house.info]