http://friendfeed.com/minmax2k/696f9db7/so-if-u-government-decided-to-shut-down-internet So, if the U.S. government decided to shut down the internet, how would we respond? What is our alternative if our "backbone" goes missing? Maybe we need a "short-wave radio" internet alternative for when all hell breaks loose and the major ISP's go down? yesterday - Comment - Like - Share - Hide VALD.Zone so over snow , John E. Bredehoft and Joe Silence liked this One advantage that we have over Egypt is that a number of garages have a stockpile of CB radios. Not good for long distance, but it's a good way to elude an Internet kill switch. - John E. Bredehoft CB. Breaker, breaker 1-9 - Spidra Webster Smokeys just took Scoble's iPhone. - John E. Bredehoft Mark for awhile there will be 'holes' in some IP ranges. You also may be able to modem through your mobile device if its bluetooth modem-capable. Just make sure you have a list of International ISP's you can dial into. - You ( edit | delete ) other than that, HAM - You ( edit | delete ) Also Faxes may still work - You ( edit | delete ) The problem with faxes is that they are dependent upon the voice telephone network, controlled by a few companies and easy to kill, just as the Internet itself is easy to kill. Presumably the authorities would try to jam unauthorized AM, FM, and other radio and television broadcasts. However, they probably wouldn't jam the police bands, so if you had the capability to broadcast on a police band you could get a message out (to those who could hear). - John E. Bredehoft Most ham radios have the ability to broadcast on those bands, especially if they're home-built. - Glen Campbell Glen, yep. Why I wish I had my grandfathers. - You ( edit | delete ) spectrum chart: http://www.adec.edu/tag... - Joe Silence CB is limited to 5 watts; hams are limited to 2000. - Glen Campbell Write messages on credit card junk mail. That stuff never fails to find it's recipient. - Josh Haley from iPhone shortwave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Joe Silence By the way, you can run TCP/IP over (ham) radio. Legally, hams are restricted to 9600 baud, but, in theory, the transmission speed is only limited by the radio frequency. My guess is that, if the Internet was shut down, hams could come up with a replacement in less than a week that used repeaters as IP gateways, and route it to real connections in Canada or Mexico. - Glen Campbell Also, I can imagine that a lot of the, ahem, "older" engineers could resurrect the old-style UNIX networking using dial-up connections between nodes. Slower, but still effective, especially for email. - Glen Campbell Glen, I have read about that. Have you checked out Telecomix? Also WeRebuild? - You ( edit | delete ) cell towers make great jamming stations. - Joe Silence Glen, I love the way you think. :) - You ( edit | delete ) That's cool info, Glen! - Spidra Webster