Iran’s internet blackout left people in the dark. How does a country shut down the internet?
Iran’s internet blackout left people in the dark. How does a country shut down the internet?
It's a good article for people who got so used to the internet permeating everything that they never considered the underlying infrastructure. But it's there, and it can be controled - not just in Iran; though certainly countries like Iran and Russia put more effort into isolating it than others. But it will never be 100% - circumvention will always be possible - and I don't mean VPNs, just other physical/technical means of accessing & distributing the internet and/or other forms of ditributed messaging. As a layman's guess I'd say cell towers might factor into this.
it is far easier to just shut down local peering center and transit for major providers. far less moving elements to take care of than cell towers, which would not even address the whole problem ("problem" from the government's point of view)
The article suggests the only way to avoid government shutdowns is through satellite internet which makes Starlink a lot more valuable.
buzzer noise
Sat links are a way to avoid that... if you assume they are not cooperative with the government doing the shutdown.
Which is basically a very stupid assumption in a whole lot of scenarios.
Actual alternative:
Build a community meshnet of your own transceiver devices, and/or use I2P.
It'd be some work to setup, and probably be pretty slow, but this would at least enable local communication, and if you're using I2P, it'd also be secure and private.
At the moment, Starlink in Iran can only do local sms text messages, that's it, no web access, no voicecalls, no signal nor whatsapp nor telegram.
And your phone has to already be carrier unlocked.
Or, you have to have an actual Starlink DishyMcDishFace reciever or w/e ... which are contraband in Iran. As in, do not pass go, go directly to jail, potentially do not ever come out.
Also, Elon can just rail a line of ketamine and suddenly change his mind for no apparent reason.
Whereas a local meshnet does not have a single point of failure, and actually supports many more kinds of internet traffic, and Elon isn't reading all your SMS and metadata... as well it being possible to hook into any kind of potential tunnel to the broader internet.
But Elon shut off Starlink to Ukraine at the worst time… he can do it to you too.
ABSOLUTELY HARAM
Stock traders use shortwave radio to transmit digital data. Over long distances it's apparently faster than the internet.
So yeah, there are always options.
Probably easier to do rather than laying your line through different jurisdictions and plots of someone's property.
My Iranian friend was talking to me about the Internet blackouts. I mentioned the ham radio thing.
He told me I would be hung by the regime, but only after being severely tortured for at least a week first.
Meshtastic would work too. But it’s banned in many countries. Or specifically devices that transmit in a specific frequency