Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down

pcworld ^ | January 31, 2011 | By Patrick Miller, David Daw, PCWorld

[Mechanicos]

These days, 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.

[bigbob]

This is all BS. Conventional wi-fi devices can’t work in a mesh topology without new firmware, and even then you’d be limited to the same range, i.e. maybe as far as your neighbor’s house down the street. If you want to talk to your neighbor, you don’t need a mesh network. Even a CB or FRS handheld would have 10-50 times the range.

And if they shut down the internet, there is no way you can get access via wi-fi, mobile devices, or even two-way satellite as they all have to go back to a Tier 1 network, and that’s where the switch will be.

There IS a way to do it, but it requires obtaiing a ham radio license and spending some money and acquiring some skill, which is to say, it’s out of the question for all but the elite few. But hey, we’ll be willing to trade e-mail for gold, whiskey, ammo, or suitable trade goods ;-)

[bigbob]

You aren’t going to send data over powerlines without the willing cooperation of the power company, and it will still require a repeater every few hundred feet and special high voltage couplers for the 7200 volt distribution network that starts at the pole outside your house. You can’t communicate peer to peer without going thru the power company’s server and if the gov’t gets a kill switch, there won’t be any internet signal to connect with anyhow.

Every time this thread comes up the same kind of pseudo-science nonsense that was used to justify the global warming myth is spread around as if it were the truth.

ALL modern communications technologies except for a radio connected to it’s own antenna are dependent on man-made infrastructure that is owned by someone and can be controlled by that owner. Think about how useful your cellphone is after you stop paying the bill and you’ll have a good picture of the internet after the feds get their Kill Switch.

[FARS]

really?
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-burying-anti-mullah-site-by.html

[Kirkwood]

A license? LOL! Spoken like a true revolutionary.

[ApplegateRanch]

Data can be transmitted over powerlines...but only one message can be Morse blinked at a time! *<];-’)

[Southack]

Nope. You are 90 years behind the times.

Narrowband data transmission over powerlines from 1922 on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication#Low-speed_narrow-band_communication

...and...

Modern High speed internet over powerlines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_transmission_line#E-Line

[JSteff]

you’ll have a good picture of the internet after the feds get their Kill Switch.

Yes, you are right. But then again there are thousands of miles of "gray wire" in the U.S. alone. Much of it is unused, and IIRC, unowned and sitting doing nothing.

Now as bright as Americans are, I don't think it will take long for some sharp group to get it running into some sort of network.

[Myrddin]

In 1981 I connected the cassette tape interface of
my H8 HeathKit computer to my 2m VHF radio. I
sent a BASIC program I had written to a friend
living 5 miles away. Very primitive, but very usable.
The cassette tape audio modem worked just fine
over radio. Two years later, I did the same thing
with a Radio Shack Color Computer. By 1985, I
had TCP/IP running over AX.25 UI frames on a
TAPR TNC connected to a 2m radio. Real e-mail
over SMTP, file transfer using FTP and telnet to
remote hosts. All without the internet.

[Southack]

Just remember that at low bandwidth, older technologies such as paper printing, punch cards, and CD burning come back into play.

What a hostile government can do is slow down your data transfer speed...but it can’t completely stop it.

[Myrddin]

Conventional WiFi works fine over an OLSR mesh
network. I use an ad hoc network in place of the
usual infrastructure mode. AODV is slightly more
difficult. File transfer is easy. Streaming isn’t real
practical. PSK31 is a dirt cheap way to conduct a
network keyboarding to a large audience. Only a
PC sound card is required to receive. The transmitting
station needs to be licensed...although a clever
person could hack a GMRS radio into a useful
transceiver in a pinch.

[JoeFromSidney]

Back during WW II, when ham radio was shut down, many hams switched to "carrier current" communications. This means transmitting over the power line network, using frequencies of a few tens of kilohertz. A problem is that the signal won't go through the transformer at the pole. Somehow you need to connect to the other side of the transformer. This may mean negotiating with the power company. However, in an emergency I think I'd ignore that little detail.

Intercoms that use the wiring in your house for the link between sets use the same principle. I once found that a neighbor, on the same side of the transformer as my house, was using one of these intercoms. We could hear each other. Fortunately my sets had several channels available. I just didn't use the same channel he was using, and avoided the interference.

[Myrddin]

I can still manage 10 to 13 WPM CW. That works
fine over many varieties of signalling media.

[Southack]

Aye. A few WPM over long distances is useful...especially if each long distance region then has a local way to distribute data en masse.

For instance, morse code between two cities 15 miles apart, coupled with printing a paper pamphlet for distribution of those few WPM in each city.

[ROTB]

Yeah...well they can deal with the 20-30million armed Americans showing up in DC looking for that switch....

****************************

... which would be the perfect time for China/Russia to nuke us.

[Eye of Unk]

Personally I think we should at the very least have hard copies of Morse Code.

And we need to know who is on our side, even if we have to establish the Palin Broadcasting Network of resistance cells forwarding news and operations.

[Lmo56]

There are a couple of old standbys:

[Spitzensparkin1]

"In 1981 I connected the cassette tape interface of my H8 HeathKit computer to my 2m VHF radio. I sent a BASIC program I had written to a friend living 5 miles away. Very primitive, but very usable. The cassette tape audio modem worked just fine over radio. Two years later, I did the same thing with a Radio Shack Color Computer. By 1985, I had TCP/IP running over AX.25 UI frames on a TAPR TNC connected to a 2m radio. Real e-mail over SMTP, file transfer using FTP and telnet to remote hosts. All without the internet."

Ah yes, the days of the green screen Commodor C64 and packet. My first packet station had dual 5 1/4" floppy drives plus the cassette tape drive for backup!

Packet on HF is sporadic but reaches out from a few miles to thousands of miles under the proper conditions. VHF/UHF packet runs 9600 baud point to point backbones and 1200 baud point to multipoint nodes that when combined can cover entire states and regions providing end users VHF access. Together they have many advantages until something better is available. Slow but reliable once set up. Still a viable but bandwidth limited rf network. Might be a good idea to dust off some old gear and see if it still works. It could come in handy again.

Regards, SS1

[TigersEye]

If the government shuts the internet down there will no need for further communication. The way will be clear.

[Salamander]

I feel awful for laughing at that....:)

So...will those of us who can ride a horse, hell-bent-for-leather for hours *finally* become invaluable communication devices?

[truthfreedom]

Shouldn’t a lot more data be able to be moved through VHF than 1200 baud? Digital TV is on VHF. That’s a lot of bandwidth.