Help Egypt communicate
January 28, 2011 8:20 PM Subscribe
Egypt has apparently "shut down" their Internet. This says that they shut down DNS, which suggests that "shut down the Internet" is a bit of an overstatement and that such a thing might not be possible.
Who knows more about how this "shutdown" is working and, more importantly, how can we help these people communicate?
It's certainly possible to take all national ISPs off-line, especially in a monopoly telco environment like Egypt. As @hattifatterner points out, de-peering BGP routes is very, very effective, and can take out wired as well as wireless connectivity. There are any number of other layer 1-4 solutions as well.
How you stop long-distance dial connections or satellite connections is a bit more complicated, of course.
posted by kjs3 at 8:36 PM on January 28, 2011
How you stop long-distance dial connections or satellite connections is a bit more complicated, of course.
posted by kjs3 at 8:36 PM on January 28, 2011
International calls are working, from what I've heard. My understanding is that many folks are getting to the net via French dialup ISP's.
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:37 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:37 PM on January 28, 2011
Yes, the major Egyptian ISPs have simply stopped exchanging routing information with the rest of the world. DNS is only the smallest part of that.
I expect most communication happening now is via satellite phones and ham radios, and maybe dialup if voice links have been left up. That's likely to continue to be the case until/unless the ISPs are permitted to restore their BGP sessions.
posted by bac at 8:39 PM on January 28, 2011
I expect most communication happening now is via satellite phones and ham radios, and maybe dialup if voice links have been left up. That's likely to continue to be the case until/unless the ISPs are permitted to restore their BGP sessions.
posted by bac at 8:39 PM on January 28, 2011
The Renysys blog talks a little bit about this too. My Dad's joke is that they've turned Egypt into the world's largest intranet.
posted by jessamyn at 8:39 PM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 8:39 PM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
I have a handful of expat friends in Cairo (I lived there for a couple of years), and one friend was online the longest, the most tech-savvy of my friends who was using tor or something or other. Anyway, he's been offline all day today and much of Thursday afternoon, since the government made the big cut. None of my friends were online today--and these are people who'd be online all day if they could be.
The problem might be that if only a few lines are open, it's likely that everything is super crowded and slow. As of two years ago, all of the internet traffic out of Egypt ran through three cables under the Med Sea to Italy. When two of those cables were cut at the same time, internet traffic was at a near standstill in Egypt for a couple of weeks.
Landlines are working. I'm hearing from friends that people in Cairo know less about what's going on than we do here in the US--as many people in Egypt don't have landlines.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:49 PM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
The problem might be that if only a few lines are open, it's likely that everything is super crowded and slow. As of two years ago, all of the internet traffic out of Egypt ran through three cables under the Med Sea to Italy. When two of those cables were cut at the same time, internet traffic was at a near standstill in Egypt for a couple of weeks.
Landlines are working. I'm hearing from friends that people in Cairo know less about what's going on than we do here in the US--as many people in Egypt don't have landlines.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:49 PM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
You also asked how we can help. I've contacted the State Department, White House, and one of my senators to ask them to keep pressuring Mubarak to turn on the internet and allow peaceful protests. I think our own governments need to know that Americans are paying attention--the more of us they hear from, the more they know we're aware of what's going on.
I'm feeling rather helpless myself, but it does feel good to be doing the very thing Egyptians wish they could do--communicate with an elected government.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:02 PM on January 28, 2011
I'm feeling rather helpless myself, but it does feel good to be doing the very thing Egyptians wish they could do--communicate with an elected government.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:02 PM on January 28, 2011
Even the landlines are bit spotty - probably depending on use. Cell phone service is returning but still unreliable (my husband is on the phone with his family in Suez as I type this).
The internet is still dependent on the cables in the Med, as it was a few years ago when the cables were cut, so it's not that hard to cut the bulk of internet activities. There are some using satellite connections though the number of people with that option is pretty limited.
They did leave one small ISP alone (Noor) to enable the stock market to stay live - apparently there are others that are accessing it, but that usage is being monitored (mentioned in the Rensys blog above, I think).
posted by scrute at 9:10 PM on January 28, 2011
The internet is still dependent on the cables in the Med, as it was a few years ago when the cables were cut, so it's not that hard to cut the bulk of internet activities. There are some using satellite connections though the number of people with that option is pretty limited.
They did leave one small ISP alone (Noor) to enable the stock market to stay live - apparently there are others that are accessing it, but that usage is being monitored (mentioned in the Rensys blog above, I think).
posted by scrute at 9:10 PM on January 28, 2011
Scrute, I did hear that landlines had been cut specifically in Suez, so it's good to hear your husband can get through to his family at all. I hope they are well.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:16 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by bluedaisy at 9:16 PM on January 28, 2011
Thanks bluedaisy! They live in the area that has had all the action so we're happy to hear they're well.
Suez has been a particular challenge for communications.
posted by scrute at 10:27 PM on January 28, 2011
Suez has been a particular challenge for communications.
posted by scrute at 10:27 PM on January 28, 2011
instead of starting a separate thread, i thought i'd ask here...
can anyone give more info on the ham radio thing? the whole idea fascinates me and i'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. as an amateur tinkerer/techie/etc. the idea of screwing around with ham radios sounds fun as all hell to me, so i'd love to get some leads on how it all works.
thx!
posted by parkbench at 10:28 PM on January 28, 2011
can anyone give more info on the ham radio thing? the whole idea fascinates me and i'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. as an amateur tinkerer/techie/etc. the idea of screwing around with ham radios sounds fun as all hell to me, so i'd love to get some leads on how it all works.
thx!
posted by parkbench at 10:28 PM on January 28, 2011
parkbench: You want this askme thread, three doors down. (Okay, 21 doors.)
posted by hattifattener at 1:06 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by hattifattener at 1:06 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
You could publicize efforts like this one by a French ISP (translation here) to offer free dialup Internet service to Egyptians with modems.
posted by scalefree at 6:06 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by scalefree at 6:06 AM on January 29, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by hattifattener at 8:30 PM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]