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There's been some talk of people using Starlink to stay online. Is this a practical counter measure, or is Iran just not yet prepared to deal with them? It's m

There's been some talk of people using Starlink to stay online. Is this a practical counter measure, or is Iran just not yet prepared to deal with them? It's my understanding Iran polices the ISPs, who aren't assigning IP addresses at this time. Iran could treat the dishes as contraband, but short of working with Starlink, is there a practical way for them to prevent satellite internet? You could flood all channels with packets like a jammer or something, but doing that at nation-scale still seems impractical to me? I'm not an expert in any of these fields, just asking really

joshstrange 9mo ago
They did seem to block Starlink with jamming. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575224
- dpoloncsak 9mo ago
  Oh, missed that. Thanks!
ianburrell 9mo ago
Iran has deployed jammers for Starlink. It sounds like they got help from Russia and China. They may not be jamming Starlink directly, but GPS that Starlink needs to locate dishes. Easiest way would be to fly drones or planes around and look for the dishes. Should be possible to receive and triangulate the signals. The problem for Iran regime is that they are busy putting down the uprising.
- dpoloncsak 9mo ago
  Yeah...for sure 'bigger fish to fry'. Was just curious from a technical perspective if/how they could pull it off. Thank you!
- jjwiseman 9mo ago
  They do seem to be jamming GPS around Tehran at least, as seen on GPSJAM. https://bsky.app/profile/lemonodor.bsky.social/post/3mcak43pyk22c https://bsky.app/profile/lemonodor.bsky.social/post/3mcak43p...
alphazard 9mo ago
> or is Iran just not yet prepared to deal with them? ... you could flood all channels with packets like a jammer or something A related question that someone here may be able to answer: Who wins the jamming game in principal? Is it $JAMMER or $COMMUNICATORS? It seems like Starlink could distribute secret codes[0] on each device, where each code is used in some kind of spread spectrum scheme, and that jamming all of the codes would be difficult, the wider the spectrum? There must be some kind of energy/bandwidth tradeoff, but what I want to understand is if the game is easier for one side in principal. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_theory
- wmf 9mo ago
  Just look at Ukraine: drones are using fiber because the jammers are winning. AFAIK jamming is simpler than communication and the jammer can always broadcast just as wide as you can spread a signal. (It's "in principle" BTW.)

joshstrange 9mo ago

They did seem to block Starlink with jamming. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575224

dpoloncsak 9mo ago
Oh, missed that. Thanks!

ianburrell 9mo ago

Iran has deployed jammers for Starlink. It sounds like they got help from Russia and China. They may not be jamming Starlink directly, but GPS that Starlink needs to locate dishes. Easiest way would be to fly drones or planes around and look for the dishes. Should be possible to receive and triangulate the signals. The problem for Iran regime is that they are busy putting down the uprising.

dpoloncsak 9mo ago
Yeah...for sure 'bigger fish to fry'. Was just curious from a technical perspective if/how they could pull it off. Thank you!
jjwiseman 9mo ago
They do seem to be jamming GPS around Tehran at least, as seen on GPSJAM. https://bsky.app/profile/lemonodor.bsky.social/post/3mcak43pyk22c https://bsky.app/profile/lemonodor.bsky.social/post/3mcak43p...

alphazard 9mo ago

> or is Iran just not yet prepared to deal with them? ... you could flood all channels with packets like a jammer or something A related question that someone here may be able to answer: Who wins the jamming game in principal? Is it $JAMMER or $COMMUNICATORS? It seems like Starlink could distribute secret codes[0] on each device, where each code is used in some kind of spread spectrum scheme, and that jamming all of the codes would be difficult, the wider the spectrum? There must be some kind of energy/bandwidth tradeoff, but what I want to understand is if the game is easier for one side in principal. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_theory

wmf 9mo ago
Just look at Ukraine: drones are using fiber because the jammers are winning. AFAIK jamming is simpler than communication and the jammer can always broadcast just as wide as you can spread a signal. (It's "in principle" BTW.)