Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread David Charlap

David Schwartz wrote:


	If you want to do this, your notification has to be explicit. I suggest, 
"You have no privacy here. Everything you are doing is being logged." Notice 
that when you tell people the truth, it starts looking less like what you 
wanted to do in the first place.

Well, that makes it sound like you are a pervert that enjoys reading 
everybody else's e-mail.

The language can be a bit better than that.  You're right, you should 
say that all outgoing web forms are intercepted and recorded.  But you 
can add additional statements to the extent that you won't be reading 
through that information unless it's part of following up on complaints 
of abuse, or at the request of law enforcement.

I'm not trying to establish rules carved in stone, and I'm not trying to 
play lawyer.  I was trying to attempt a possible solution to the problem 
of these spams coming from anonymous-access terminals in public places 
via web-based mail systems.

Since web-mail doesn't have a fixed protocol to filter/monitor, you have 
to take a different approach.  You can't block all possible vectors, 
since that would essentially block all traffic.  One possibility is 
monitoring and logging in order to preserving evidence for possible 
future investigations.  Yes it may be seen as invasive, but what other 
choice is there if your network is routinely being abused by felons?

So far, I haven't seen anybody else post even a vague idea of a solution 
to this problem.  Of course, as a network operator, you don't have to 
care - you can just cut off the service of any cafe owner who can't 
figure out a solution on his own.

-- David



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread David Schwartz


On Tue, 03 Dec 2002 10:27:49 -0500, David Charlap wrote:

>I don't know what (if any) legal right of privacy is in Nigeria, but I
>would suspect that a publicly posted policy notice (like "management
>reserves the right to monitor all traffic" and a strict TOS policy)
>should mitigate any legal concerns about doing this.

My experience has been that it is illegal in most countries and generally
considered unethical to intercept the communications of third parties without
their knowledge. Notifying people that you reserve the right to intercept
their communications does not provide them with the knowledge that their
communications are being intercepted. Knowing that your communications might
be intercepted or that someone has the right to intercept them is not the
same as knowing that they *are* being intercepted.

If you want to do this, your notification has to be explicit. I suggest,
"You have no privacy here. Everything you are doing is being logged." Notice
that when you tell people the truth, it starts looking less like what you
wanted to do in the first place.

I think it's obvious that a wishy-washy "mangement reserves the right to
monitor all traffic" is an attempt to deceive your customers. I strongly
recommend not doing that.

DS





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread Max's Lists

may be africa is different, but in other developing countries (central asia,
south america) cybercafes substitute personal PC access.  No one goes to
cybercafes in the us since an average middle class family can afford a
computer and typically has a phone line.  elsewhere, people pool resources
to get a 64 kbps line and a bank of six to eight pcs on a lan.  people use
cybercafes in the same fashion they used pcs here -- i have seen cybercafes
set up in shanty towns.
- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "fingers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: Networking in Africa...


>
> > > The most recent? Lagos, Sep 2002.
> >
> > africa is quite large. lagos constitutes but a small portion of it.
>
> but I am being told that Lagos is the center of Africa by such
knowledgeble
> persons who claim that there are *gasp* thousands *gasp* of cyber-cafe's
in
> Lagos. I mean since there no thousands cyber-cafe's in the entire US, I am
> sure presence of thousands of them in a rather small city means it is
*the*
> center.
>
> Alex
>




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread alex

> I don't know what (if any) legal right of privacy is in Nigeria, but I 
> would suspect that a publicly posted policy notice (like "management 
> reserves the right to monitor all traffic" and a strict TOS policy) 
> should mitigate any legal concerns about doing this.

Fascinating. Nigeria now has not only US-like internet penetration but also
a US-like legal system.

I would suggest that those who never stepped a foot in the sub-Saharan Africa
refrain from describing how the internet access is setup there.

Alex





OT (was RE: Networking in Africa...)

2002-12-03 Thread Martin, Christian

Folks,
 
> judging any continent on a single country is extremely closed-minded.

As this conversation is becoming. Please, this petty discussion is drifting
pretty far offtopic.

chris


> 



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread fingers

> but I am being told that Lagos is the center of Africa by such knowledgeble
> persons who claim that there are *gasp* thousands *gasp* of cyber-cafe's in
> Lagos. I mean since there no thousands cyber-cafe's in the entire US, I am
> sure presence of thousands of them in a rather small city means it is *the*
> center.

a cybercafe != the centre of a continent! wake up. there are many
cyber-cafe's in south africa too. sometimes as many as 12 in a single
street. but i'd not call south africa the centre of a continent just
because of it. each country is different. each country brings with it it's
own regulatory framework, incumbent telco of varying degrees, etc.

judging any continent on a single country is extremely closed-minded.




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread David Charlap


So what exactly do people do in regards to Web spam?  I block tcp/80 
but would like to hear what others are doing.

Block or rate limit?  I would assume that blocking port 80 in a 
cybercafe wouldn't really work out in the long run.

One possible solution might be to force all traffic through a proxy, and 
have it cache all outgoing form traffic for several weeks.  This way, if 
someone reports abuse, you can search the cache and find out who is 
doing it.  From there, hopefully you'll have enough information to hand 
it over to law enforcement, or at least ban the customer from the cafe.

I don't know what (if any) legal right of privacy is in Nigeria, but I 
would suspect that a publicly posted policy notice (like "management 
reserves the right to monitor all traffic" and a strict TOS policy) 
should mitigate any legal concerns about doing this.

The only problems I see with this are hard drive space for the cache, 
and the possibility of spammers using secure web sites.  Do any web-mail 
sites use https these days?

-- David



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread alex

> > The most recent? Lagos, Sep 2002.
> 
> africa is quite large. lagos constitutes but a small portion of it.

but I am being told that Lagos is the center of Africa by such knowledgeble
persons who claim that there are *gasp* thousands *gasp* of cyber-cafe's in
Lagos. I mean since there no thousands cyber-cafe's in the entire US, I am
sure presence of thousands of them in a rather small city means it is *the*
center.

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread alex

> 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>  > Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
>  > hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.
> 
> Having worked and lived in Nigeria while consulting with several ISPs
> there, I can assure you this is incorrect. In large cities such as
> Lagos, you can't stand on the street and spit without hitting an
> Internet cafe, many of which are open 24-hours-a-day (419ers never
> sleep). $15 will get you all night (11pm - 7am) access in an air
> conditioned cafe with their own fast VSAT connection. I am _not_ joking-
> there are thousands of Internet cafes throughout Lagos State on almost
> every street. Many smaller towns in all parts of the country will often
> have at least one Internet cafe around.

Substitute thousands for dozens, $15 for ($15 for access via their
software) $50 and you may get to plug in your laptop. 

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread fingers

> The most recent? Lagos, Sep 2002.

africa is quite large. lagos constitutes but a small portion of it.




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread alex

> > Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria.
> 
> do tell us your personal experience and when it was.

The most recent? Lagos, Sep 2002.

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread alex

> > Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
> > hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.
> 
> I get lots and lots and lots of spam from cybercafes located in Nigeria,
> as well as apologies from both the cafes and the upstream networks.  I
> realize this doesn't fit with your preconceptions, so I'll drop it here.
> 
> Be sure not to look at
> 
>http://directory.google.com/Top/Regional/Africa/Nigeria/Business_and_Economy/Internet/
> or you might learn about at least ten ISPs operating in Nigeria.

*yawn*

Have you ever been in Lagos?

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread Matt Levine


On Tuesday, December 3, 2002, at 02:14 AM, Hank Nussbacher wrote:








Interestingly enough, I got the following today from a Cybercafe in 
Nigeria that I had blocked:


>cheers
>Adeyinka

So what exactly do people do in regards to Web spam?  I block tcp/80 
but would like to hear what others are doing.

Block or rate limit?  I would assume that blocking port 80 in a 
cybercafe wouldn't really work out in the long run.


Regards,
Hank



--
Matt Levine
@Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
@Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ  : 17080004
AIM  : exile
GPG  : http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x6C0D04CF
"The Trouble with doing anything right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was."  -BIX




Fwd: Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-03 Thread Hank Nussbacher



> > i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> > a host inside Nigeria
>
> wow, i seem to get several per day. would you like some, i can setup an 
exploder
> for some of my spam if anyones interested? ;)

and they're all actually sent/relayed through a host in Nigeria? my first
few were, none that I received after that were. alot from south africa,
and a few other parts, but no more from Nigeria

Interestingly enough, I got the following today from a Cybercafe in Nigeria 
that I had blocked:

>Thanks for the prompt response to the problem with our IP address.
>I have alreday instructed  all staff to be more vigilant and we are going
>through the list of people who came around that time on saturday to track
>down who sent this email.
>I am in the process of buying a cybercafe management software which allows
>the administrator to look at diffrent PCs and see what people are doing so
>that if we spot things like this we will stop it.
>Furthermore, I have instructed my team to program the webcams to take
>snapshot of the shop every 20 minutes so that we can see who was in the
shop
>at what time.
>I have also made sure we have notices put up in the cafe to say we do not
>tolerate email spamming and anybody caught will be reported to the
>autorities for appropriate action
>However, I must stress that this is a cybercafe where 100% of people who
>come there use web based email and there is no software or mechanism to
stop
>spamming from web based emails. You can see from the mail that was sent
that
>the person put a web based email address as the return address. Therefore I
>cannot guarantee that this will not happen again , I can only put measures
>in place to deter people. If there is any software you know about that
would
>prevent this or mechanism please let me know and I will put it in place
>immediately
>I am surprised however that there is no responsibility placed on providers
>of web based emails who are in the best position to filter out and prevent
>such emails from being delivered.
>I hope all the measures highlighted above will be enough for you to go to
>the ISP to reactivate our blocked IP
>
>cheers
>Adeyinka

So what exactly do people do in regards to Web spam?  I block tcp/80 but 
would like to hear what others are doing.

Regards,
Hank



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Hank Nussbacher

At 12:22 AM 03-12-02 +0200, fingers wrote:


> > i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> > a host inside Nigeria
>
> wow, i seem to get several per day. would you like some, i can setup an 
exploder
> for some of my spam if anyones interested? ;)

and they're all actually sent/relayed through a host in Nigeria? my first
few were, none that I received after that were. alot from south africa,
and a few other parts, but no more from Nigeria

I have over 100 IPs blocked for smtp+www that cover many Cybercafes in 
Africa.  The list gets updated daily. :-(

-Hank




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Hank Nussbacher

At 05:36 PM 02-12-02 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


> >> fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
> >> hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.
> >
> >Pardon me for not counting "allocated" addresses as IP connectivity.
>
> You're pardoned, but just barely.  Try some traceroutes, and you'll
> find that every country in Africa does indeed have some kind of IP
> connectivity.

Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.


http://www.gilat.com/post/GilatinAfrica.pdf
We currently provide 14Mb/sec of upstream commodity Internet access for 
Gilat.  Most of it is to Nigeria with Congo, Cameroon, Aritrea, Madagascar, 
Ghana and Mozambique nicely represented.

-Hank


> There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from
> satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam
> I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African
> countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.

Correction... *very* *few* satellite links.


Alex





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Martin Hannigan


On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Robbie Honerkamp wrote:

>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>  > Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
>  > hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.
>
> Having worked and lived in Nigeria while consulting with several ISPs
> there, I can assure you this is incorrect. In large cities such as
> Lagos, you can't stand on the street and spit without hitting an
> Internet cafe, many of which are open 24-hours-a-day (419ers never
> sleep). $15 will get you all night (11pm - 7am) access in an air
> conditioned cafe with their own fast VSAT connection. I am _not_ joking-
> there are thousands of Internet cafes throughout Lagos State on almost
> every street. Many smaller towns in all parts of the country will often
> have at least one Internet cafe around.


Hehe. I didn't see this before the message I just sent. I didn't know
you were home.

>
> To answer your satellite comment, most ISPs have their own VSAT
> connections, though others go through local upstreams such as NITEL and
> GS Telecom (which eventually load the traffic onto their own satellite
> link). Many Internet cafes have set up their own VSATs as well, as many
> of the local ISPs can be unreliable and/or overpriced.



So are you back in the US or still floating around the continent?






Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Martin Hannigan


On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Dan Hollis wrote:

>
> On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, fingers wrote:
> > i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> > a host inside Nigeria
>
> About 45% of the nigerian scams I receive originate directly from nigerian
> IPs, another 45% originate from a2000.nl in the netherlands, and the last
> 10% from lagos.


Someone folks may remember from the list way back, Robbie Honkerkamp,
is working in Africa building net.

Here's an sample:


http://www.tangaza.com/Home/IntroStatic.html

http://www.rufaa.com/

Anyhow, I think the big problem in Africa is pipe size. It's
pretty neat that with small pipes people put up such big websites.


-M




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Robbie Honerkamp

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
> hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.

Having worked and lived in Nigeria while consulting with several ISPs
there, I can assure you this is incorrect. In large cities such as
Lagos, you can't stand on the street and spit without hitting an
Internet cafe, many of which are open 24-hours-a-day (419ers never
sleep). $15 will get you all night (11pm - 7am) access in an air
conditioned cafe with their own fast VSAT connection. I am _not_ joking-
there are thousands of Internet cafes throughout Lagos State on almost
every street. Many smaller towns in all parts of the country will often
have at least one Internet cafe around.

To answer your satellite comment, most ISPs have their own VSAT
connections, though others go through local upstreams such as NITEL and
GS Telecom (which eventually load the traffic onto their own satellite
link). Many Internet cafes have set up their own VSATs as well, as many
of the local ISPs can be unreliable and/or overpriced.

Robbie

--
Robbie Honerkamp
ISP consultant- have-laptop-will-travel
[EMAIL PROTECTED]





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread John R. Levine

>Who cares? It's not like one of you got ripped off by 419. Load up
>SpamAssassin and forget about it.

SpamAssassin doesn't block 419 spam very well because the messages
keep changing.  Since I get at least a thousand 419 spams for every
actual message from West Africa, the reasonable response is to block
networks from which I get repeated 419 spam until they figure out how
to deal with their spam problem.  So far, none of them have come off
the block list yet, although there's one or two that seem to have
clueful enough management that I didn't block them in the first place.




-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869
[EMAIL PROTECTED], Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, 
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread hc




fingers wrote:

  
There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from
satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam
I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African
countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.

  
  
i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
a host inside Nigeria
  


I receive business scams and spams all the time from Nigeria once every week.
It has turned out into a scam
weekly newsletter now..

But it isn't that bad as much as the amount of spam me and our users received
from China..

We were being spammed from China so many times from various IP addresses
(as much as 1,500 spams a week)
that we simply had to block all IP addresses assigned for ChinaNet and various
parts of APNIC. Afterwards, I bet
we saved at least 1megabit worth of bandwidth avoiding all these Chinese
spams.

Just my experience with this spam annoyance.

-hc




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Randy Bush

> Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria.

do tell us your personal experience and when it was.

randy




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Randy Bush

>>> Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in
>>> Africa with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).
>> fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
>> hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.
> Pardon me for not counting "allocated" addresses as IP connectivity.

personally, i don't care what you count.  but it's clear what you don't
know and where your prejudices lie.

fyi, i count pingability.

randy




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Omachonu Ogali

Who cares? It's not like one of you got ripped off by 419. Load up
SpamAssassin and forget about it. Kinda sad how a thread that
started about finding networkers in Africa turns into derogatory
remarks about countries you have no clue about.

Shut up and move along.
-- 
Omachonu Ogali
Information Wave Technologies
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.informationwave.net



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread John R Levine

> Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
> hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.

I get lots and lots and lots of spam from cybercafes located in Nigeria,
as well as apologies from both the cafes and the upstream networks.  I
realize this doesn't fit with your preconceptions, so I'll drop it here.

Be sure not to look at
http://directory.google.com/Top/Regional/Africa/Nigeria/Business_and_Economy/Internet/
or you might learn about at least ten ISPs operating in Nigeria.

Regards,
John Levine, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.




RE: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread blitz

As is the Secret Servicethey have an address for reporting as well:

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

At 14:11 12/2/02 -0800, you wrote:


The FBI unit working these cases will be happy to confirm most do
originate in Africa even if the money ultimately ends up elsewhere.

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm#nigerian

Best regards,
__
Al Rowland





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread fingers

> Correction... *very* *few* satellite links.

actually, some countries have _mostly_ sat links for atleast their intl
connectivity. and very small links at that. some countries, where allowed
to, run vsat radio or microwave for everything from backbone links to
local loop for customers.

if you're bored take a look at the archives for isp-sat




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread alex

> >> fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
> >> hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.
> >
> >Pardon me for not counting "allocated" addresses as IP connectivity.
> 
> You're pardoned, but just barely.  Try some traceroutes, and you'll
> find that every country in Africa does indeed have some kind of IP
> connectivity.

Try finding some IP connectivity while in Nigeria. You would be
hard-pressed, even if you are willing to pay enormous $$.

> There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from
> satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam
> I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African
> countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.

Correction... *very* *few* satellite links.


Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread fingers

> > i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> > a host inside Nigeria
>
> wow, i seem to get several per day. would you like some, i can setup an exploder
> for some of my spam if anyones interested? ;)

and they're all actually sent/relayed through a host in Nigeria? my first
few were, none that I received after that were. alot from south africa,
and a few other parts, but no more from Nigeria




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Stephen J. Wilcox

> i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> a host inside Nigeria

wow, i seem to get several per day. would you like some, i can setup an exploder
for some of my spam if anyones interested? ;)

Steve




RE: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Al Rowland

The FBI unit working these cases will be happy to confirm most do
originate in Africa even if the money ultimately ends up elsewhere.

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm#nigerian

Best regards,
__
Al Rowland

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
fingers
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 2:00 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Networking in Africa...



> There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from 
> satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam

> I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African 
> countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.

i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages
from a host inside Nigeria





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Dan Hollis

On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, fingers wrote:
> i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
> a host inside Nigeria

About 45% of the nigerian scams I receive originate directly from nigerian 
IPs, another 45% originate from a2000.nl in the netherlands, and the last 
10% from lagos.

-Dan
-- 
[-] Omae no subete no kichi wa ore no mono da. [-]




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread fingers

> There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from
> satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam
> I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African
> countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.

i don't know if I've ever actually received 1 of those spam messages from
a host inside Nigeria




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread John R. Levine

>> fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
>> hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.
>
>Pardon me for not counting "allocated" addresses as IP connectivity.

You're pardoned, but just barely.  Try some traceroutes, and you'll
find that every country in Africa does indeed have some kind of IP
connectivity.

There seem to be a lot of ISPs who get little slices of IP from
satellite carriers like emperion.net in Denmark.  Much of the 419 spam
I get from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other west African
countries originates in cybercafes with satellite links.


-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869
[EMAIL PROTECTED], Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, 
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread alex


> > Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in
> > Africa with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).
> 
> fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
> hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.

Pardon me for not counting "allocated" addresses as IP connectivity.

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Steven G. Huter

> Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in
> Africa with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).

Hi Alex,

Access beyond the capital cities varies, but as several folks have
pointed out, there is IP connectivity to all countries in the region, run
by local ISPs, telcos, and universities, etc. Eritrea was the last
country on the continent to bring up an IP link - in November 2000.
Tunisia was the first to connect to the global Internet in March 1991,
followed by South Africa later that year, etc. A few relatively recent
updates, from engineers we work with in the respective countries...

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1014648054895:488740490/fromPage=UG

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1011802447635:489025450/fromPage=CD

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1007087598617:489022638/fromPage=GN

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1037285984211:488846420/fromPage=TN

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1022602245849:488913539/fromPage=TZ

http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/operation=lookup-report/ID=1037635414317:489052248/fromPage=MU

http://nsrc.org/AFRICA/ML/ml-topo-janvier-2001.gif

http://www.nsrc.org/AFRICA/GH/ncs-topo-jan-2002.gif

etc.

Steve Huter






Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Randy Bush

> Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in
> Africa with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).

fyi, all countries in africa are ip connected.  dunno how big your
hands are, but there are over 50 countries in africa.

randy




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Jared Mauch

On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 10:24:11AM -0800, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > 
> > > 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > A friend of mine is working on one of the committees for next years 
> > > Supercomputing conference and noticed that, in the past, they'd had
> > > participants from most continents but none from Africa.  Does anyone
> > > know of a good organization/group/etc which we could spam with our 
> > > conference notice and request for participation?
> > 
> > Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in Africa
> > with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).
> 
> Most major cities in most countries have at a minimum ip dialup services, 
> in major metropolitan centers there are now large numbers of wireless 
> isps as well...

One thing to keep in mind is that people that reside in Africa
are large/huge prepaid GSM users.  Take that and apply it to mobile
data services over cell phones (3G and the likes) and I think you
lend yourselves to interesting things.

Doing bluetooth or IR to your desktop/laptop from your phone
to get 128k+ speeds where there is no wired infrastructure but
cellular will do interesting things to transform internet usage
in these places and others that have skipped the wired telephony
phase of "development".

Take that in conjunction with the talks at nanog about ipv6,
pigs and rockets strapped on and you will start to see some of the
most interesting developments yet in the internet.

- Jared

--
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
clue++;  | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.



Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Valdis . Kletnieks
On Mon, 02 Dec 2002 20:29:57 +0200, fingers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  said:

> while we're not chasing elephants off the runway, or killing
> lions/tigers/each other on the sandroads, some people actually spend their
> time in the confines of a building of sorts earning a living. quite often
> this even involves the internet, although this might change if our
> government continues the way they have been for the last few months.

But there's this huge growth industry in Nigerian-scam spam. ;)

(Sorry, I couldn't resist...)




msg07137/pgp0.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread fingers

> Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in Africa
> with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).

while we're not chasing elephants off the runway, or killing
lions/tigers/each other on the sandroads, some people actually spend their
time in the confines of a building of sorts earning a living. quite often
this even involves the internet, although this might change if our
government continues the way they have been for the last few months.




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Joel Jaeggli

On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> 
> > 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > A friend of mine is working on one of the committees for next years 
> > Supercomputing conference and noticed that, in the past, they'd had
> > participants from most continents but none from Africa.  Does anyone
> > know of a good organization/group/etc which we could spam with our 
> > conference notice and request for participation?
> 
> Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in Africa
> with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).

Most major cities in most countries have at a minimum ip dialup services, 
in major metropolitan centers there are now large numbers of wireless 
isps as well...

A more interesting and germane question is how big is the number of
people/organizations in africa with hpc applications and how do your reach
them, since that is the subset of folks interested in attending super
computing.
 
> Alex
> 

-- 
-- 
Joel Jaeggli  Academic User Services   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--PGP Key Fingerprint: 1DE9 8FCA 51FB 4195 B42A 9C32 A30D 121E  --
  In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last
  resort of the scoundrel.  With all due respect to an enlightened but
  inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"





Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread alex

> 
> Hello,
> 
> A friend of mine is working on one of the committees for next years 
> Supercomputing conference and noticed that, in the past, they'd had
> participants from most continents but none from Africa.  Does anyone
> know of a good organization/group/etc which we could spam with our 
> conference notice and request for participation?

Would that friend be so kind as to name more than a handful places in Africa
with IP connectivity (multinational companies do not count).

Alex




Re: Networking in Africa...

2002-12-02 Thread Marshall Eubanks

Have you tried AFNOG ?

http://www.afnog.org/

They have a mailing list

AfNOG Mailing List

The AfNOG mailing list is established to provide a forum for the 
exchange of technical information and the discussion of specific 
implementation issues that require cooperation among African network 
service providers.

To subscribe, send an email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 
'subscribe afnog' (without the quotes) as text in the body of the 
message.

Regards
Marshall Eubanks

On Monday, December 2, 2002, at 11:33  AM, Eric Gauthier wrote:


Hello,

A friend of mine is working on one of the committees for next years
Supercomputing conference and noticed that, in the past, they'd had
participants from most continents but none from Africa.  Does anyone
know of a good organization/group/etc which we could spam with our
conference notice and request for participation?

Thanks!

Eric :)


PS: For those who are curious, here's part of the write-up for the SC 
Global
portion of next years Supercomputing conference:

SC Global is the multi-national and multi-cultural meeting place for
communication and discussion of ideas relating to high-end computing 
and
communications and their impact on science and society. SC Global 2003
will be the second time we've held such an event; we have the
opportunity to build on the successes of SC Global 2001, and to learn
from its challenges.

SC Global will include several Showcase events featuring art, music,
dance, and other innovative uses of advanced collaboration 
technologies.
In addition, SC Global will be an important extension of SC 2003's
high-quality technical program. For example, papers presented in SC
Global will meet the same high standards as those in the regular
Technical Papers sessions.