Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
How To Communicate If The US Govt Shuts Down The Internet
at 01:30 Posted by Vatic Master
Vatic Note:
This is up for my sake as well as everyone elses. I am a ludite, so
putting this up and copying it would be a good thing. However, what if
power goes out, then the hand held ones would still work, unless there
is an EMLF attack, then its to hand powered communication using a
pencil, pen or type writer that is manual.
At
that point, if you have done your homework early and set up a
communications support system, then that would be your default choice.
On walkie talkies set up frequencies in advance and remember 7 miles is
the range.
Now
read this below and given my lack of expertise in this area, we would
appreciate any ideas and suggestions anyone with knowledge might have.
It would help all of us who have not grown up with this technology.
Good luck everyone.
How To Communicate If The US Govt Shuts Down The Internet
http://pragmaticwitness.com/how-to-communicate-if-the-us-govt-shuts-down-the-internet/
By Pragmatic Witness
stay connected to the outside world, which could become a life and death
issue, in the event access to the internet is shut down.
Editor’s Note: Beyond the government shutting down the Internet,
many more events can cut off internet access to millions such as natural
disasters and cyber attacks. In such situations, being able to
communicate with the outside world could become a matter of life and
death. For that reason, be sure to print this out and save a hard copy
because if your Internet does go down you are not going to be able to
access this story.
Liberty News
May 21, 2012
Scenario
Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your
location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by
telling the major ISPs to turn off service.
This is what happened in Egypt Jan. 25 prompted by citizen protests,
with sources estimating that the Egyptian government cut off
approximately 88 percent of the country’s internet access. What do you
do without internet? Step 1. Stop crying in the corner. 2. Then start
taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you
can do to keep the communication flowing.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES:
MAKE YOUR NETWORK TANGIBLE
Print out your contact list, so your phone numbers aren’t stuck in
the cloud. Some mail services like Gmail allow you to export your online
contact list in formats that are more conducive to paper, such as CSV
or Vcard, and offer step-by-step guides on how to do this.
BROADCAST ON THE RADIO:
CB Radio: Short for “Citizens Band” radio, these
two-way radios allow communication over short distances on 40 channels.
You can pick one up for about $20 to $50 at Radio Shack, and no license
is required to operate it.
Ham radio: To converse over these radios, also known
as “amateur radios,” you have to obtain an operator’s license from the
FCC. Luckily, other Wired How-To contributors have already explained
exactly what you need to do to get one and use it like a pro. However,
if the President declares a State of Emergency, use of the radio could
be extremely restricted or prohibited.
GMRS: The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a
licensed land-mobile FM UHF radio service in the United States available
for short-distance two-way communication. It is intended for use by an
adult individual who possesses a valid GMRS license, as well as his or
her immediate family members… They are more expensive than the walkie
talkies typically found in discount electronics stores, but are higher
quality.
Family Radio Service: The Family Radio Service (FRS)
is an improved walkie talkie radio system authorized in the United
States since 1996. This personal radio service uses channelized
frequencies in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. It does not suffer
the interference effects found on citizens’ band (CB) at 27 MHz, or the
49 MHz band also used by cordless phones, toys, and baby monitors.
Microbroadcasting: Microbroadcasting is the process
of broadcasting a message to a relatively small audience. This is not to
be confused with low-power broadcasting.
In radio terms, it is the use
of low-power transmitters to broadcast a radio signal over the space of a
neighborhood or small town. Similarly to pirate radio,
microbroadcasters generally operate without a license from the local
regulation body, but sacrifice range in favor of using legal power
limits.
Packet Radio Back to the ’90s: There do exist
shortwave packet-radio modems. These are also excruciatingly slow, but
may get your e-mail out. Like ham radio above it requires a ham radio
license because they operate on ham radio frequencies.
TELEPHONE:
Set up a phone tree: According to the American
Association of University Women, a phone tree is “a prearranged,
pyramid-shaped system for activating a group of people by telephone”
that can “spread a brief message quickly and efficiently to a large
number of people.” Dig out that contact list you printed out to spread
the message down your pyramid of contacts.
Enable Twitter via SMS: Though the thought of
unleashing the Twitter fire hose in your text message inbox may seem
horrifying, it would be better than not being able to connect to the
outside world at all. The Twitter website has full instructions on how
to redirect tweets to your phone.
Call to Tweet: A small team of engineers from
Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company Google acquired recently, made
this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply
leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (
+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855 ) and the service will
instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet
connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the
same phone numbers or going to the Twitter account, speak2tweet.
FAX:
If you need to quickly send and receive documents with lengthy or
complex instructions, phone conversations may result in
misunderstandings, and delivering the doc by foot would take forever.
Brush the dust off that bulky old machine, establish a connection by
phone first with the recipient to make sure his machine is hooked up,
then fax away.
You may not need a fax machine to send or receive faxes if your computer has a dial-up fax application.
NON-VIRTUAL BULLETIN BOARD
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the virtual world that we forget
about resources available in the real world. Physical bulletin boards
have been used for centuries to disseminate information and don’t
require electricity to function.
If you are fortunate enough to be
getting information from some other source why not share it with your
friends and neighbors with your own bulletin board? Cork, magnetic and
marker bulletin boards are as close as your nearest dime store and can
be mounted just about anywhere. And if push comes to shove you can
easily make your own with scrap wood lying around the house.
Getting back online: While it might be relatively
easy for a government to cut connections by leveraging the major ISPs,
there are some places they wouldn’t get to so readily, like
privately-owned networks and independent ISPs.
FIND THE PRIVATELY RUN ISPs
In densely populated areas, especially in central business districts
and city suburbs there are multiple home WiFi networks overlapping each
other, some secure, some not. If there is no internet, open up your WiFi
by removing password protection:
If enough people do this it’s feasible
to create a totally private WiFi service outside government control
covering the CBD, and you can use applications that run Bonjour (iChat
on Mac for example) to communicate with others on the open network and
send and receive documents. **needs more clarification
If you are a private ISP, it’s your time to shine. Consider allowing
open access to your Wi-Fi routers to facilitate communication of people
around you until the grid is back online.
RETURN TO DIAL-UP
According to an article in the BBC about old tech’s role in the
Egyptian protests, “Dial-up modems are one of the most popular routes
for Egyptians to get back online. Long lists of international numbers
that connect to dial-up modems are circulating in Egypt thanks to net
activists We Re-Build, Telecomix and others.”
Dial-up can be slow. Often, there is a lightweight mobile version of a
site that you can load from your desktop browser quickly despite the
limitations of dial-up. Examples: mobile.twitter.com, m.facebook.com,
m.gmail.com.
AD-HOC NETWORKING
Most wireless routers, PCs, laptops, and even some ultramobile
devices like cellphones have the ability to become part of an “ad hoc”
network, where different “nodes” (all of the devices on the network)
share the responsibility of transmitting data with one another.
These
networks can become quite large, and are often very easy to set up. If
used properly by a tech-savvy person, such networks can be used to host
temporary websites and chat rooms. There are many internet tutorials on
the internet for ad hoc networking, so feel free to google some.
Apple computers tend to have very accessible ad hoc functionality
built in, including a pre-installed chat client (iChat) that will
automatically set up an ad hoc “Rendezvous” chatroom among anybody on
the network, without the need for an external service like AIM or Skype.
Ad hoc network-hosting functionality is built in to the Wi-Fi menu.
Windows computers have several third-party ad hoc chat applications
available (such as Trillian) and setting up an ad hoc Wi-Fi network is
almost as simple as on a Mac.
Linux operating systems, of course, have plenty of third-party apps
available, and most distros have ad hoc network-creation support built
in.
BUILD LARGE BRIDGED WIRELESS NETWORK
Using popular wireless access point devices like a Linksys WRT54G,
you can create a huge wireless bridged network — effectively creating a
Local Area Network (LAN), or a private Internet that can be utilized by
all users within range using a Wi-Fi enabled device.
You can also link multiple devices together wirelessly, extending the
range of your network. Most access points will cover a 100 meter area
and if your wireless device is built to support the 802.11n wireless
standard, you will get almost a 500 meter coverage area for each access
point.
To build a wireless bridge, check out the dd-wrt wiki, and learn how
to configure Linksys WRT54G as a wireless client using this Anandtech
thread.
NINTENDO DS
A used DS family device can be purchased inexpensively. In addition
to wi-fi, the DS supports its own wireless protocols. Using Pictochat,
it is possible to chat with nearby DS users without having any DS games.
Unfortunately, the range is quite short.
Some games, such as the fourth generation Pokemon games, support mail
items. Thus you can send your message under the guise of just playing a
game. Mail items can be sent through the Internet if you can get on the
net and you and your partner(s) have each other’s friend codes.
The original DS and the DS Lite do support the Opera web browser, but
finding the game card and memory pack may be very difficult. Starting
with the DSi, Opera is downloadable.
INTRANET
Your computer has the ability to set up your own INTRANET. This was
done BEFORE the internet was popularized in two ways: Your computer
dialed up other computers and sent them the contents of a message board,
or local people people dialed into your computer. A nationwide system
can be set up this way with a central location sending to many cities
then each city sending out the info locally.
BECOME UNTRACEABLE
If you’re going to post government secrets on your work-around site,
you may want to set up an untraceable account. Really, you only need a
mail drop, an assumed name, a prepaid credit card you can get at many
stores to set up service.
GET SATELLITE ACCESS
You can have very, very slow internet if you have something similar
to an Iridium phone, which would allow you to do dial up at 2400 baud,
which at least gives you e-mail.
This will also work when your
government has shut down GSM and telephone access, and will work pretty
much anywhere on the planet. If you’re in the right place, get yourself
KA-SAT access which is satellite broadband and will not be routed
through any internet exchange that certain local governments may monitor
or block (unless that government is part of EU or er … Uncle Sam.
BACK TO BASICS
Make some noise: Have an air horn or other loud instrument handy. It
may just come down to being able to alert people in your local
geographic area, who would otherwise be unaware of an emergency. You may
also want to learn a bit about Morse code and have a cheat sheet
available.
Stay up to date with the latest news:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/kr3at
Facebook: https://facebook.com/alexhiggins732
Website: The Alexander Higgins Blog
Headlines: Real-time News Headlines
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Thanks to: http://vaticproject.blogspot.com
