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This is happening right now in Kashmir. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/28/india-restore-kashmirs-internet-phones https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/28/india-re

This is happening right now in Kashmir. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/28/india-restore-kashmirs-internet-phones https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/28/india-restore-kashmirs-i... It really makes me wonder whether a strong movement towards mesh networks could resolve this. What are the ways authorities could block a community network? At least information could be spread this way, and might have saved the Zimbabwean journalist.

kuu 7y ago
Kashmir it's mentioned in the article. It also mentions this, which I found surprisingly high: In all, more than a quarter of the world’s nations have used the tactic at one point or another over the past four years.
taurath 7y ago
Signal jamming. Transmission detection vans to find base c&c stations. Device confiscation and outlawing.
- shubb 7y ago
  Laser mesh... There is an ongoing fight between the UK radio regulator and illegal radio stations. The regulator has detector vans, so it's a similar situation to what you describe. They can find transmittors, but their objective is to find the studio, which needs a live link to the transmitter. As I understand it, the pirates break out onto the roof of tall buildings, especially public housing towers, and place transmitters. These will be found, so they gotta have a way of linking them back to home. Sure, they could use mobile data (has its own opsec problems), or hacked residential wifi and a VPN (add real prisong itme of a hacking charge to the sheet when you get court). Apparently what they often do is use a cantena link - a focussed beam of wifi to some distant place, which can be very difficult to pinpoint accurately. I also saw a doc where they used lasers. These days though, I think a lot of them just stream on the internet.
  - mgreenleaf 7y ago
    Do you have urls for any sources? sounds like an interesting read.
    - Aromasin 7y ago
      Other than the pirate stations around London, they're not quite as proliferate as they once were with the advent of the internet. They have a colourful history in the UK however, with some stations broadcasting from international waters in the 60's just off the UK to circumvent the monopoly the BBC and record companies had on music. I highly recommend watching 'The Boat That Rocked' for a good comedy based on it. Below are some interesting reads on the culture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kin... https://www.transdiffusion.org/2008/08/01/on_the_run_the https://www.transdiffusion.org/2008/08/01/on_the_run_the http://www.thepiratearchive.net/ http://www.thepiratearchive.net/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090324075718/http://www.freewebs.com/g1hbe/andromeda.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20090324075718/http://www.freewe...
      - sandworm101 7y ago
        In the US it was released as "Pirate radio". A great movie under either title but my american friends didnt get the dunkirk reference in the final act.
      - mgreenleaf 7y ago
        Thank you!
  - Nextgrid 7y ago
    Just wondering why can't Tor & the internet be used to transmit the source signal? Seems like a perfect candidate - the FM transmitter gets the source signal off a Tor Hidden Service - if it's seized there's no way to locate where the hidden service is actually hosted.
  - telesilla 7y ago
    What I'm imagining is a true mesh network where there is no "home", only distributed data. You take down one transmitter, another one takes up the slack. It seems prudent in this case to learn know more about tracing, and thereby avoiding tracing, the source of a Wifi transmitter.
jesusthatsgreat 7y ago
Cut electricity. That puts an end to modern communication.
- bujak 7y ago
  Electricity is cut ten times a day in India. They know how to deal with that, everyone is running a generator.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Nope: solar panels, gas generators, even handcranked chargers are enough to keep a cellphone going.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    But not a cellphone tower. Not covertly. And if cell towers are down, cellphones are useless.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      > if cell towers are down, cellphones are useless. The thread on the front page about HK shows that's not true.
- fit2rule 7y ago
  I regularly get up a mountain and spend some time in a hut that is well off the grid. The end to modern communication is one of the reasons I spend time hiking to get up there. Even still, lately, its been a great place get back to after a day of further marching around, to watch movies and catch up on some writing work, listen to or make some music (electronic) or hack on some code .. the point is: solar-all-the-things is actually working. There is so much energy up there... and especially on the side of a mountain. On some spots up there, I can hang a portable water generator, and the camp will have electric heat .. a small wifi hub .. a couple miniPC's worth of movies and so on .. So, I dunno, I think there is quite a way to avoid grid-based electricity consumption, as long as you a) have the gear, and b) are willing to go to remote places to harvest the hell out of it ..
icebraining 7y ago
Sneakernet is probably safer. Flash drives, wifi-direct between cellphones, etc. Plus it works without custom hardware (which may be restricted) and software (which requires specific knowledge).
- sandworm101 7y ago
  No safer for the people smuggling the data. Getting caught with an encrypted usb drive can land you in a world of hurt.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Sure, it's still dangerous, but at least it's something you can try to hide, rather than broadcast around you!
closeparen 7y ago
We had jamming, frequency hopping, direction finding, etc. in WWII. Since then we’ve had 70+ years and hundreds of billions of dollars of electronic warfare R&D. If we’re competitive against the Russian or Chinese military industrial complex for control of RF in a battlefield scenario, we can certainly crush a civilian hobbyist mesh network.

kuu 7y ago

Kashmir it's mentioned in the article. It also mentions this, which I found surprisingly high: In all, more than a quarter of the world’s nations have used the tactic at one point or another over the past four years.

taurath 7y ago

Signal jamming. Transmission detection vans to find base c&c stations. Device confiscation and outlawing.

shubb 7y ago
Laser mesh... There is an ongoing fight between the UK radio regulator and illegal radio stations. The regulator has detector vans, so it's a similar situation to what you describe. They can find transmittors, but their objective is to find the studio, which needs a live link to the transmitter. As I understand it, the pirates break out onto the roof of tall buildings, especially public housing towers, and place transmitters. These will be found, so they gotta have a way of linking them back to home. Sure, they could use mobile data (has its own opsec problems), or hacked residential wifi and a VPN (add real prisong itme of a hacking charge to the sheet when you get court). Apparently what they often do is use a cantena link - a focussed beam of wifi to some distant place, which can be very difficult to pinpoint accurately. I also saw a doc where they used lasers. These days though, I think a lot of them just stream on the internet.
- mgreenleaf 7y ago
  Do you have urls for any sources? sounds like an interesting read.
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    Other than the pirate stations around London, they're not quite as proliferate as they once were with the advent of the internet. They have a colourful history in the UK however, with some stations broadcasting from international waters in the 60's just off the UK to circumvent the monopoly the BBC and record companies had on music. I highly recommend watching 'The Boat That Rocked' for a good comedy based on it. Below are some interesting reads on the culture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kin... https://www.transdiffusion.org/2008/08/01/on_the_run_the https://www.transdiffusion.org/2008/08/01/on_the_run_the http://www.thepiratearchive.net/ http://www.thepiratearchive.net/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090324075718/http://www.freewebs.com/g1hbe/andromeda.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20090324075718/http://www.freewe...
    - sandworm101 7y ago
      In the US it was released as "Pirate radio". A great movie under either title but my american friends didnt get the dunkirk reference in the final act.
    - mgreenleaf 7y ago
      Thank you!
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Just wondering why can't Tor & the internet be used to transmit the source signal? Seems like a perfect candidate - the FM transmitter gets the source signal off a Tor Hidden Service - if it's seized there's no way to locate where the hidden service is actually hosted.
- telesilla 7y ago
  What I'm imagining is a true mesh network where there is no "home", only distributed data. You take down one transmitter, another one takes up the slack. It seems prudent in this case to learn know more about tracing, and thereby avoiding tracing, the source of a Wifi transmitter.

jesusthatsgreat 7y ago

Cut electricity. That puts an end to modern communication.

bujak 7y ago
Electricity is cut ten times a day in India. They know how to deal with that, everyone is running a generator.
icebraining 7y ago
Nope: solar panels, gas generators, even handcranked chargers are enough to keep a cellphone going.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  But not a cellphone tower. Not covertly. And if cell towers are down, cellphones are useless.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    > if cell towers are down, cellphones are useless. The thread on the front page about HK shows that's not true.
fit2rule 7y ago
I regularly get up a mountain and spend some time in a hut that is well off the grid. The end to modern communication is one of the reasons I spend time hiking to get up there. Even still, lately, its been a great place get back to after a day of further marching around, to watch movies and catch up on some writing work, listen to or make some music (electronic) or hack on some code .. the point is: solar-all-the-things is actually working. There is so much energy up there... and especially on the side of a mountain. On some spots up there, I can hang a portable water generator, and the camp will have electric heat .. a small wifi hub .. a couple miniPC's worth of movies and so on .. So, I dunno, I think there is quite a way to avoid grid-based electricity consumption, as long as you a) have the gear, and b) are willing to go to remote places to harvest the hell out of it ..

icebraining 7y ago

Sneakernet is probably safer. Flash drives, wifi-direct between cellphones, etc. Plus it works without custom hardware (which may be restricted) and software (which requires specific knowledge).

sandworm101 7y ago
No safer for the people smuggling the data. Getting caught with an encrypted usb drive can land you in a world of hurt.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Sure, it's still dangerous, but at least it's something you can try to hide, rather than broadcast around you!

closeparen 7y ago

We had jamming, frequency hopping, direction finding, etc. in WWII. Since then we’ve had 70+ years and hundreds of billions of dollars of electronic warfare R&D. If we’re competitive against the Russian or Chinese military industrial complex for control of RF in a battlefield scenario, we can certainly crush a civilian hobbyist mesh network.