Vatic Note: This is excellent and very much needed, so make this go viral so we are all on the same page. Share info with your contacts you trust and decide together which way you want to go depending on which level you are on. For instance walkie talkies can be used locally and are good for a 7 mile radius, so you can contact local friends near you immediately and decide where to meet or to go to use the suggestions below. Region wide might be the radios or the Broadcasts suggested.
Then finally, which I like, are the private ISP's that the gov can't touch. Heck, I was thinking of getting on those before anything happens. Anyway check it out and see what works for you. One option not mentioned is seek out your local unorganized militia because if they disconnect us, then they are heading into the depopulation options and you best be ready for the last resort. Local collaborators are you first option.
http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_30144.php
By: Wallace
Date: 2012-02-07
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. 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.
Alex Jones and infowars.com have a telephone number for people to listen
to his radio show by phone, in case the internet goes down, or if you
don't have internet. The phone in listen line is
512-646-5000.
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 onlineWhile 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 similiar 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.
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.