Sorry for taking so long to reply to this. This is really fantastic information, thank you. It's the only detailed on-the-ground information I've really read on the topic. Some questions inline:
On 02/06/2011 09:18 AM, Sameh El-Ansary wrote: > Dear P2P-Hackers, > I- DIFFERENT PHASES > --------------------------------- > Let me clarify that at different stages, we had different challenges. > Phase 1: Only Twitter was blocked. > Solution: People started using public proxies. > Even VPNs, were a bit too much of an advanced idea for some people. > They started disseminating the info through Facebook. Do you think they were blocking at the IP or DNS layer? > Phase 2: No Internet > At this stage, I can not confirm whether routing inside Egypt was still > working > on or not. All ISPs and Mobile operators were ordered to shut it down. > and I am interested to know (as some of you are), how did they do it. > But ordering physical powering off of all switches is not unimaginable here. By "shut it down" do you mean when people turned on their computers at home, their DSL modems weren't able to connect? Or did they connect but perhaps DHCP didn't return any response? Or maybe that they did get a DHCP response but for some reason all packets were blocked? Or maybe the connection was in fact fine domestically, but everybody was so accustomed to checking international websites that nobody really realized the domestic connections were working fine? Also, were there any reports of (say) hospitals, government offices, police stations, or any critical facilities being affected by a sudden loss of internet? If the answer is "no", then do you think that's because: a) They don't use the internet b) They didn't complain c) They did complain and it wasn't reported d) They didn't lose the internet > Phase 3: No SMS > Just one more censorship level > > Phase 4: No Internet & no mobile services. > At this point there was nothing working but land-lines. Again, I can not > confirm whether routing was working or not. However, if you are using a 3G > connection, there was no even GSM signal to start with !! Ok, so land lines were working continuously throughout? Even international land lines? > I hope this gives a closer picture to what has been going on in Egypt. > I hope I can still communicate and brainstorm with you on the subject, > however, I am rarely online now. > > Finally, we have no shortage of techies here. We can set up any complex > system. > Everybody, is volunteering to do something > and self-organizing communities are being formed in a speed beyond belief. > Needless to say, the things have to be simple enough to be used by > non-techie masses. This is great; really helpful stuff. Thanks, and good luck to you! -david Founder and CEO of Expensify Follow us at http://twitter.com/expensify _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list p2p-hackers@lists.zooko.com http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers
