In egypt-internet governance
In el rehab, cairo at american university gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this? Is gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses? need answers Rigia -- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo
Hi, On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 7:02 PM, warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote:
In el rehab, cairo at american university
gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought
what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this?
I suspect it was all arranged well in advance. I don't think we will ever know, but all routes to egyptian ISPs were withdrawn in the space of 25 minutes. renesys,com has some good reports on this. Is
gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses?
One can still operate a router without a license, and there are multiple "gateways" (routers actually) owned by private operators. The fact that they were all shut down in such a short time span indicates to me that there is some measure of "control" by the gov't, but they don't run the border routers. -- Cheers, McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel
when we were in Egypt for IGF2009, we learnt (off the streets) that the government owned telkos (mobile and fixed) run ALL their several internet gateways. Abit like what we used to have here with JamboNet in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Their market is liberal at the retail level but not at the wholesale (national gateway) level. In such a scenario it is very easy to swith off the internet... the good? news is that switching off the 'net did not reduce the agitation for change and indeed the Egyptian govt apparently switched the (egyptian) Net back on yesterday afty. walu. --- On Wed, 2/2/11, warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote: From: warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> Subject: [kictanet] In egypt-internet governance To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 7:02 PM In el rehab, cairo at american university gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this? Is gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses? need answers Rigia -- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: jwalu@yahoo.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com
The service providers were basically asked to shut down or loose their licenses. A couple days ago the companies argued that protests were taking place in even a bigger way without the internet and even phones. Incidentally even public transport across the country was shut down. I think all is back today after shameful 'Mungiki' type violence. -- Soko ID Co. Ltd Tel: +254 (0)721 468699 http://www.soko-id.co.ke/ Soko ID is an innovative company that supports public organisations and promotes the Kenyan heritage on the internet. Quoting warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com>:
In el rehab, cairo at american university
gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought
what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this? Is gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses?
need answers
Rigia -- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo
Interesting turn of events , sovereignty at play :-). Best Regards On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Wamuyu Gatheru <wamuyu@soko-id.co.ke> wrote:
The service providers were basically asked to shut down or loose their licenses. A couple days ago the companies argued that protests were taking place in even a bigger way without the internet and even phones. Incidentally even public transport across the country was shut down. I think all is back today after shameful 'Mungiki' type violence.
-- Soko ID Co. Ltd Tel: +254 (0)721 468699 http://www.soko-id.co.ke/
Soko ID is an innovative company that supports public organisations and promotes the Kenyan heritage on the internet.
Quoting warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com>:
In el rehab, cairo at american university
gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought
what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this? Is gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses?
need answers
Rigia -- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo
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-- Barrack O. Otieno Afriregister Ltd (Kenya) www.afrire <http://www.afriregister.com>gister.bi, www.afriregister.com<http://www.afriergister.com> <http://www.afriregister.com>ICANN accredited registrar +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno
Here is a good article on shutdown of net in Egypt. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?ref=world However, I still find it technically confusing. Can the engineers among us again please review for the social scientists what happened here precisely? *Quoting* "One of the government’s strongest levers is Telecom Egypt<http://www.telecomegypt.com.eg/english/index.asp>, a state-owned company that engineers say owns virtually all the country’s fiber-optic cables; other Internet service providers are forced to lease bandwidth on those cables in order to do business.".[ . . . .] "Yet despite this decentralized design, the reality is that most traffic passes through vast centralized exchanges — potential choke points that allow many nations to monitor, filter or in dire cases completely stop the flow of Internet data." .[ .. . . ] "There has been intense debate both inside and outside Egypt on whether the cutoff at 26 Ramses Street was accomplished by surgically tampering with the software mechanism that defines how networks at the core of the Internet communicate with one another, or by a blunt approach: simply cutting off the power to the router computers that connect Egypt to the outside world." [ . . . . ] "Over the next five days, the government furiously went about extinguishing nearly all of the Internet links to the outside world that had survived the first assault, data collected by Western network monitors show. Although a few Egyptians managed to post to Facebook or send sporadic e-mails, the vast majority of the country’s Internet subscribers were cut off." [ . . .. ] * This is a bit clearer * "Individual Internet service providers were also called on the carpet and ordered to shut down, as they are required to do by their licensing agreements if the government so decrees. According to an Egyptian engineer and an international telecom expert who both spoke on the condition of anonymity, at least one provider, Vodafone<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/vodafone_group_plc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, expressed extreme reluctance to shut down but was told that if it did not comply, the government would use its own “off” switch via the Telecom Egypt infrastructure — a method that would be much more time-consuming to reverse. Other exchanges, like an important one in Alexandria, may also have been involved. Still, even major providers received little notice that the moves were afoot, said an Egyptian with close knowledge of the telecom industry who would speak only anonymously. “You don’t get a couple of days with something like this,” he said. “It was less than an hour.”" [ . . . .] On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 8:05 PM, Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>wrote:
Interesting turn of events , sovereignty at play :-).
Best Regards
On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Wamuyu Gatheru <wamuyu@soko-id.co.ke>wrote:
The service providers were basically asked to shut down or loose their licenses. A couple days ago the companies argued that protests were taking place in even a bigger way without the internet and even phones. Incidentally even public transport across the country was shut down. I think all is back today after shameful 'Mungiki' type violence.
-- Soko ID Co. Ltd Tel: +254 (0)721 468699 http://www.soko-id.co.ke/
Soko ID is an innovative company that supports public organisations and promotes the Kenyan heritage on the internet.
Quoting warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com>:
In el rehab, cairo at american university
gov shut down all texting and Internet as well as al jazeera arabic from Thursday until this afternoon. Food for thought
what is the technical situation? How did government of egypt do this? Is gateway controlled by gov, or did gov pull licenses?
need answers
Rigia -- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo
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This message was sent to: otieno.barrack@gmail.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/otieno.barrack%40gmail....
-- Barrack O. Otieno Afriregister Ltd (Kenya) www.afrire <http://www.afriregister.com>gister.bi, www.afriregister.com<http://www.afriergister.com> <http://www.afriregister.com>ICANN accredited registrar +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno
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-- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo Global Affairs and Public Policy
Hi, On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:41 PM, warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote:
Here is a good article on shutdown of net in Egypt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?ref=world
However, I still find it technically confusing. Can the engineers among us again please review for the social scientists what happened here precisely?
I can try. There are 7 layers in the OSI model: http://www.novell.com/info/primer/art/prim02.gif
Quoting
"One of the government’s strongest levers is Telecom Egypt, a state-owned company that engineers say owns virtually all the country’s fiber-optic cables; other Internet service providers are forced to lease bandwidth on those cables in order to do business.".[ . . . .]
To get access to the rest of the Internet, Egyptian ISPs need a physical link to other ISPs outside of Egypt. AFAICS (walu: this means As Far As I Can See), Egypt gov said shut down at layer 3 or we will shut you down at layers 1 or 2.
"Yet despite this decentralized design, the reality is that most traffic passes through vast centralized exchanges — potential choke points that allow many nations to monitor, filter or in dire cases completely stop the flow of Internet data." .[ .. . . ]
There must be places for ISPs to meet each other to exchange traffic. these are often called Internet eXchange Points or NAPS, (Network Access Points). Shutting down an IXP does not necessarily sever all connectivity in that country, as providers have international links. Shutting down an IXP just severs intra-country connections.
"There has been intense debate both inside and outside Egypt on whether the cutoff at 26 Ramses Street was accomplished by surgically tampering with the software mechanism that defines how networks at the core of the Internet communicate with one another, or by a blunt approach: simply cutting off the power to the router computers that connect Egypt to the outside world." [ . . . . ]
We may never know, as the effect is similar, but some more data here: http://labs.ripe.net/Members/csquarce/three-case-studies-egyptian-disconnect... -- Cheers, McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel
Thanks McTim. This is helpful. On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 7:17 AM, McTim <dogwallah@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
Here is a good article on shutdown of net in Egypt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/technology/16internet.html?ref=world
However, I still find it technically confusing. Can the engineers among us again please review for the social scientists what happened here
On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:41 PM, warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote: precisely?
I can try.
There are 7 layers in the OSI model:
http://www.novell.com/info/primer/art/prim02.gif
Quoting
"One of the government’s strongest levers is Telecom Egypt, a state-owned company that engineers say owns virtually all the country’s fiber-optic cables; other Internet service providers are forced to lease bandwidth on those cables in order to do business.".[ . . . .]
To get access to the rest of the Internet, Egyptian ISPs need a physical link to other ISPs outside of Egypt.
AFAICS (walu: this means As Far As I Can See), Egypt gov said shut down at layer 3 or we will shut you down at layers 1 or 2.
"Yet despite this decentralized design, the reality is that most traffic passes through vast centralized exchanges — potential choke points that allow many nations to monitor, filter or in dire cases completely stop
the
flow of Internet data." .[ .. . . ]
There must be places for ISPs to meet each other to exchange traffic. these are often called Internet eXchange Points or NAPS, (Network Access Points). Shutting down an IXP does not necessarily sever all connectivity in that country, as providers have international links. Shutting down an IXP just severs intra-country connections.
"There has been intense debate both inside and outside Egypt on whether
cutoff at 26 Ramses Street was accomplished by surgically tampering with
software mechanism that defines how networks at the core of the Internet communicate with one another, or by a blunt approach: simply cutting off
the the the
power to the router computers that connect Egypt to the outside world." [ . . . . ]
We may never know, as the effect is similar, but some more data here:
http://labs.ripe.net/Members/csquarce/three-case-studies-egyptian-disconnect...
-- Cheers,
McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel
-- Dr. Warigia Bowman Visiting Assistant Professor American University in Cairo Global Affairs and Public Policy
participants (5)
-
Barrack Otieno -
McTim -
Walubengo J -
Wamuyu Gatheru -
warigia bowman