Free Republic

It’s three days and counting before the deadline by the FBI hits in which they’ve threatened to shut down your Internet connection. The agency believes they are doing Americans a favor.

Watching the scenes out of Egypt unfold on my iPhone, I feel the need to update my Facebook profile to let my friends know how upset I am about the situation. Opening the emails that keep me up to date on the protests and the twitter feeds from around the world, it dawns on me just how dependent we all are on the internet for information. Of all the lessons to be learned from the current situation in Egypt perhaps the starkest is “There but for the grace of congress go I”. Egypt’s not so secret kill switch to effectively...

Despite the government crackdown that included an unprecedented internet and telephone blackout, some Egyptians are finding ways to communicate. (snip) A well-known blogger in Cairo, who does not want to be named as he is also a journalist said: “We are currently using proxies to avoid the crackdown on internet. They have been targeting media and particularly foreign media since the morning and we saw even women and children beaten up.”

Egypt's shutdown of the Internet within its borders is an action unlike any other in the history of the World Wide Web and it might have only taken a few phone calls to do it. "It's something I've never seen; it's totally unprecedented," said James Cowie, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Renesys, an IT company in New Hampshire that helps Internet service providers monitor the security of Web networks and infrastructure. "Over a period a period of about 20 minutes, it's as if each of the primary service providers started pulling the routes that lead to them. It...

...no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it's organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we've seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you're trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can't rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections. Do-It-Yourself Internet With Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi... Advanced freedom fighters can set up a portal Web page on their network.. Remember when you...

Pending legislation that would grant the President of the United States the power to pull the plug on the country’s internet access in a declared “emergency” returned to the forefront this week on the same day Egyptians faced a nation-wide blackout designed to curtail widespread government protests. Egypt flipped it’s so-called “kill switch” — will the U.S.? The bipartisan bill is sponsored by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The bill — called “The Protecting Cyberspace As A National Asset Act of 2010” S.3480 — was approved by a Senate panel...

Egypt’s sealing off the country from the rest of the internet has provoked a series of low-tech initiatives aimed at allowing at least some sort of connection. Yesterday a small French ISP, NDF opened up a dial-up line to allow access to anyone with a modem. The international dial-up numbers only work for people with access to a telephone modem and an international calling service, which not all Egyptians have. However, an Egyptian couple have published a comprehensive guide on how to use the mobile phone network to connect to international dial up internet providers. “In a nutshell we need...