A question for communication pros

[Luke]

I have been watch the news coming out of Iran. My question is how hard or is it even possible for our government to clamp down on internet commmunication? Bear in mind I still have not been computer literate enough to set an avatar.

It seems a lot of what is being reported is from private internet programs. Myself, I have no Facepage nor Tweet, hell I don't even have texting on my cell phone.

I am however slowly gaining knowledge on amature radio.


Also feel free to move to whatever area deemed more appropriate.
Thanks,

[Malsua]

Right now, pretty damn hard. They'd have to force a number of private backbones to shut down and there'd better be a good reason. Billions upon billions of business is happening all the time and the only way to stop unwanted communication would be to stop all communication.

[American Patriot]

It could be accomplished though... but it would be very hard to do.

We're under "lock down" anyway most of the time here, so they can shut down OUR stuff internally no problem. Just can't screw with, say, comcast at the moment.

[Beetle]

I may be wrong about this, but I am thinking something like this:

It would be easier to shut down the internet service provider, rather than the super highway the internet uses or the actual 'internet'. To me, the internet is millions of servers connected together by hardwire, wireless, or satellite. So, you would have to shutdown millions of servers to shut the internet down. You would have to shutdown cell towers, satellites, and cut cable to shut the super highway down (the avenue the internet uses). And if you did shut any of that down, you would have a business uprising in the street. So, the next place would be denying access. That could easily be done through ISPs. That would get the majority of people off the internet, but there would still be people on the internet. So, I think if they wanted, they could easily get the majority of people off the net.

But I may be wrong and I don't mind being educated. So, feel free to add your thoughts.

Thanks!

[American Patriot]

Cut the backbone, you cut large areas out.

Backbones are large comanpies like AT&T and Sprint, and other telephone companies with fiber and copper lines running from place to place.

The infrastructure is run over phone systems. If you try running a traceroute and looking at some things, you can kind of trace, physically, where things "go"

[Beetle]

Cut the backbone, you cut large areas out.

Backbones are large comanpies like AT&T and Sprint, and other telephone companies with fiber and copper lines running from place to place.

The infrastructure is run over phone systems. If you try running a traceroute and looking at some things, you can kind of trace, physically, where things "go"

Most likely they use T3 lines for their backbone. Although, there may still be some T1s in use. I think some larger companies have their own backbone; and if I am not mistaken they will rent some of their bandwidth. But I may be wrong about that.

[Luke]

So I may be going way out on a limb here, but it sounds like cutting electricity would be an easier way to kill communications. We have become very dependant on electric power.

[Beetle]

Yea, losing power really sucks. I hate it when you lose power during a NASCAR race.

Lost power for a lil while at camp the other day. But I have battery and a generator. So, no big deal. Couple trees got knocked down from the wind. One is a hickery tree. I wouldn't mind getting some of that hickory wood to smoke my kickin chickin with. Anyway, there will still be people and businesses who can live without power for a while. Some business have multiple generators to keep themselves going during an emergency. Some people do the same, but the majority of people do not. I would say that the majority of businesses have a contigency plan. How deep or developed the plan is will vary greatly. But I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of major businesses have a decent to good plan (and the money to back it).

[samizdat]

this was my original reaction to Luke's q until my ip was knocked down for a few days. I reckon commy fags are pretty frivolous and they can break a backbone or chip away at the myelin sheath as they please for frivolous reasons.
6/18/2009 1:19 AMfficeffice" />>>
I disagree. Certainly someone with a better upper grip on the bat can explain it more technically, but both in the present and future I believe govt. "shut down" will be more and more possible, probable and if not usurped by emp or sabatoge- likely to happen. As Malusa mentions, large scale interruptions would be costly. However, in the case of a super economic meltdown, the large shutdown and baclash equation could change. >>
>>
Certainly govt can shutdown one or a series of ips, or one or a series of private servers, by emergency order- fed-executive, state or municicpal- with or w/o a warrant. >>
The backlash would be minor. Lawyers would make money. This is the most likely near time scenario. The same could be expected for cell phone use on a municipal basis at least. I would posit that if the mayor of NYC received probable cause that cell phones were to be used to detonate bombs- dirty ones- the luxury of reaching out to touch from your Maxwell smart shoe phone would be eliminated- immediately. >>
>>
For a long term- more than two days cell phone blackout or sub or full municipal internet interruption, we'll have to wait and see. Fiber optic cables have switches, and people w/ $$ and power can shut off larger areas, legally or no. >>
>>
Larger scale shutdowns could involve disaster areas in civil unrest or a ceceding state. Smaller scale ip shutdowns, or private servers could involve news agencies. >>
>>
Frankly, I believe that the shutdown of ips, some news agencies, "extremist" forums is likely. I consider municipal cell and internet blackouts a probablity, and likely with good cause. State and regional blackouts are possible in the case of serious state resistance to fed authority.