[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Connect to the Internet the old way during n...
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Ask HN: Connect to the Internet the old way during next Ethiopian
lockdown?
As the war is reaching Addis Ababa, the Internet will be shut down
there, too, pretty soon. We personally need to be connected to the
internet (mainly just IMAP email) during lockdown: is it possible
to use our mobile to call an internet provider somewhere (Kenya
will be best) the old way? (Normally in Ethiopia they shut down
the Internet, but leave voice/TEXT mobiles and land phones working)
Author : oriettaxx
Score : 112 points
Date : 2021-11-06 10:48 UTC (12 hours ago)
| iptrans wrote:
| Back in the day dial-up over GSM was supported via Circuit
| Switched Data (CSD). However, many carriers discontinued support
| for CSD when it was superseded by GPRS and EDGE. Furthermore,
| even if this was supported, it would most likely be turned off by
| the government when they disable Internet access.
|
| This leaves you with the GSM voice channel which is only 9.6
| kbps. The voice channel is further impaired by the audio
| compression which makes it rather unsuitable for data
| transmission. You should probably not expect data rates of more
| than 2.4 kbps.
|
| However, a voice channel is a voice channel. If nothing else you
| should be able to use a modem via an old school audio coupler to
| your head phone jack using a very low bitrate modulation.
| Theoretically you could do the same with an app if you can find
| or make a softmodem app.
|
| Failing anything else, there are a number of TCP over sound
| libraries that you could hack to work over a telephone call.
| sharikous wrote:
| If you can live with ~ 1 kbps and can afford some weeks of
| engineer time (and have someone abroad too) you can surely build
| a TCP/IP stack over sound.
|
| See https://dspillustrations.com/pages/posts/misc/using-your-
| sou...
| oriettaxx wrote:
| oh, super! but don't I have in this context the same issue
| somebody else wrote about? the fact that my analog sound will
| be shrink to much due to digital transformation, at least on
| mobile connections? (somehow the same issue I read people face
| while sending a fax over mobile connections).
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| Play around with https://github.com/quiet or
| http://www.whence.com/minimodem/ to see what the highest
| bitrate and ECC you can send over a GSM voice connection.
| Should be fairly quick.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| Sorry for sounding like a smart-ass, but wouldn't asking an
| Ethiopian tech forum be better than asking Hacker News, which do
| not know all that much about local situations and local
| solutions?
|
| Also good luck. My friend used to be in Addis Ababa, when the war
| was confined just to Tigray, and he said it's a great place, but
| he was (rightly) afraid that it will spread and escaped. It does
| not sound good.
| yyyk wrote:
| I suspect oriettaxx is capable of asking an Ethiopian tech
| forum _and_ Hacker News. HN might not be as aware of local
| conditions, but might be more aware of modern solutions to net
| blocking.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| :) add to this that a tech question in a tech forum, cannot
| ends up with a non tech solution as Y_Y above who came out
| with a brilliant "ring me and give me your password and I'll
| read the emails to you" :)
| abliefern wrote:
| You've probably considered this but would it be an option to
| reach out to friends in the city who have satellite phones or
| work places with sat internet? Thinking NGO and foreign
| businesses.
| jefftk wrote:
| Satellite is probably the best option. Probably Inmarsat's BGAN:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Global_Area_Network
| oriettaxx wrote:
| Satellite phone you mean: yes, we did not actually check costs
| (last time we did, some years ago, were too high).
|
| I'm also afraid during the actual Ethiopian re-declared "state
| of emergency" we risk to hit some prohibition.
| jefftk wrote:
| Not satellite phone; satellite internet. But it's definitely
| expensive.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| maybe something like this one
| https://www.thuraya.com/en/products-list/land-voice/thuraya-...
| ?
| iso1210 wrote:
| Dialup will perform terribly now over international and long
| distance -- our voice is compressed and converted to voice over
| IP for travel internationally. That's great for voice, it's
| terrible for modems. International ISDN might still work, but
| most circuits even if they are supposed to work are being
| discontinued.
|
| Make sure you have shortwave radio and know frequencies for
| things like BBC, that will give you general information on what's
| going on across the country if nothing else.
|
| Be aware even if you have internet access, not many people in
| country do, so things you read will likely be exaggerated rumours
| at best. It's this sort of environment that things like genocide
| can thrive.
|
| The best bet would be something like an inmarsat bgan, which do
| work, and are fairly small, but obviously aren't cheap.
| IYasha wrote:
| I'd go for narrow beam wi-fi bridge, dishes are really small and
| not very expensive ($200 a pair). But tracking those is also
| possible, though, harder to be spotted for the first time.
| IYasha wrote:
| I mean long-range bridges (up to 15km) like D-Link, Microtik,
| Ubiquiti, etc.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| Another long shot: contact starlink team and see if they can
| sponsor you. It's could be great PR for them.
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| If by "the old way" you mean, like, with a modem, aka "dial up"?
|
| I'm not certain, but i think it's unfortunately not possible to
| use a modem over a cellular connection.
|
| I'm putting this here calling out "model"/"dial-up" specifically,
| in case anyone else knows for sure.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| yes, "dial up" is what I meant, thanks for specifying it.
| jrexilius wrote:
| It actually is possible, but at very low bitrate. I've seen
| more than a few demo's showing at leats 9600 baud is possible.
| But you need someone on the other end to set up the gateway.
|
| [edit to add] My memory was off, it was 300 baud. quick search
| yields things like this: http://www.gsm-
| modem.de/M2M/m2m-faq/how-to-send-data-over-gs...
| https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1497979
| https://github.com/quiet/quiet-lwip
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| 300 baud... is better than nothing to at least give you
| email, but I'd definitely want an email client connecting
| over SMTP/POP/IMAP, not try to use something like gmail in
| the browser.
|
| Looks like it's a bit of a tricky thing to set up.
| menimaxi wrote:
| I would reasure with tech to satelite internet.
| chrisMyzel wrote:
| Twillio offers API level text message sending. You'd use a
| twitter API -> twillio -> sms bridge to have twitter available...
| oriettaxx wrote:
| yes, I though about an sms solution (receiving text messages)
| triggered by an sms send from Ethiopia, but I stopped once I
| realized the privacy issue: I have no doubt text messages are
| under strict control.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| maybe encrypting ...but then you can imagine what the phone
| operator would think we are doing (!).
|
| The national unique telecommunication operator
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethio_telecom is owned by the
| Ethiopian government and, btw, I just discovered in that page
| that "Under a 2012 law regulating the telecommunication
| industry, attempts by journalists to circumvent Ethio telecom
| surveillance and censorship of the internet could be
| interpreted as a criminal offense carrying a prison sentence
| of up to 15 years"
|
| (we are not journalists, not either NGO)
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > As the war is reaching Addis Ababa, the Internet will be shut
| down there, too, pretty soon. We personally need to be connected
| to the internet (mainly just IMAP email) during lockdown
|
| The question is also "by who and why". Could they grant an
| exemption to your IP range for business reasons?
|
| If not and international texts are working, it might be possible
| to modify a lot of android handset to basically run TCP over Text
| Messages and use that to connect to IMAP. The local warlord might
| see the traffic but he might not care about plain business
| emails.
| spotlesstofu wrote:
| You could use https://briarproject.org/ for decentralized
| messaging. Once someone in your decentralized network has
| internet connection (by moving closer to Kenya for example) all
| the messages they collected would be relayed to the internet
| schmorptron wrote:
| Briar always seems awesome, but wouldn't this only work if
| there's people with the app installed / nodes every few meters
| because bluetooth's range is relatively small?
| spotlesstofu wrote:
| If nobody is moving around, you're right (actually the range
| might be greater since wifi can be used too).
|
| If people move around, they relay the messages along their
| route, thus considerably extending the range.
| schmorptron wrote:
| Ah, didn't think of legs. Classic mistake
| jack_pp wrote:
| We're in 2021, we have _wheels_
| thinkingemote wrote:
| You would need to find an ISP which still provides dial up
| internet. zen internet in the UK has one, for example, but the
| number only really works in the country and maybe a few other
| places in Europe
| https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/DialUp-FAQs
|
| Works if you have a landline and a modem on your computer. For
| mobile you'd need a modem and some way of connecting the modem to
| your mobile phone, or a phone that can be a modem, and a data
| cable. Not sure how possible this bit is though.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| "Since our dial-up number is an 0845 number this can only be
| dialled from the mainland UK, However, some providers in Europe
| do route 0845 numbers to the UK."
|
| thanks! we could try this one once we reach Ethiopia.
| kzrdude wrote:
| Telecomix (activist groups) managed to rustle up lots of dialup
| modems for Egypt in 2011.. but it's a decade ago
| floathub wrote:
| One option would be to use a setup similar to offshore sailors
| and cruisers:
|
| https://www.cruiserswiki.org/wiki/Email_at_Sea
|
| or, more generally, amateur band based radio links:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winlink
|
| The radios themselves get less and less expensive each year,
| especially with software defined radios, but unsure how
| easily/quickly one could get their hands on the required gear in
| Addis.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| we though about this (we are live-aboard ourselves ) and we
| still have to reach Addis, so we could purchase it before
| arriving, but we think it's pretty dangerous to have radio
| equipment with us: we experienced a mob on the street (which
| fortunately ended up in nothing) and are scared that anything
| weird can make you been considered an enemy (the same would
| apply to a satellite phone): this is why we would prefer to
| just discretely use our ordinary mobile phone and nothing more.
| iso1210 wrote:
| Are you really that desparate to dive into a war, it sounds
| like you have a choice?
| fragmede wrote:
| They probably don't. Or rather, they have a choice the same
| way everyone _chooses_ to have a job. Family and
| obligations are not so easily or callously discharged.
| iso1210 wrote:
| That's what I assumed, until I saw "we are live-aboard
| ourselves"
|
| Addis Ababa is a significant way inland, and indeed
| Eithiopia is landlocked.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| > anything weird can make you been considered an enemy (the
| same would apply to a satellite phone)
|
| Keep in mind that anyone who has access to the mobile
| operator can easily determine that you're doing this, so make
| sure to take proper precautions there too. Use a brand new
| phone that's not associated to you in any way from a location
| that can't be correlated with you, so that if they review
| call logs and see your suspicious long-lasting data calls
| they won't be able to find you.
| tomc1985 wrote:
| > so that if they review call logs and see your suspicious
| long-lasting data calls they won't be able to find you.
|
| I have heard of multiple countries targeting airstrikes or
| artillery using triangulated cell phone signals
| smoldesu wrote:
| To my understanding, it's trivial. AFAIK, LTE even allows
| you to be positionally tracked via signal strength and
| position relative to the tower, no triangulation needed.
| I've also seen some evidence that new Wifi standards will
| also allow for this, which is utterly terrifying.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| If land-lines work, dial-up is your best bet. If you can't find a
| provider and need to look for ones outside the country, you may
| have trouble reaching them (ex. if they don't provide service to
| other countries). In that case you can look for "ring-back"
| services.
|
| The way it works is, you call a number and give them a number you
| want to dial, and hang up. They dial that number, and then dial
| yours on a second line, and bridge the two. This gets around high
| fees on outbound calls from, say, a tiny nation with a telecom
| monopoly. We used them back in the day in small island countries
| to cut the phone bill in half. Might also be useful for
| connecting to dial-up services that are restricted.
|
| If you can't find one of those services, you can pay someone in
| another country to install a phreak box on two landlines that
| will do this for you. You build the box and hook it up to two
| phone lines. When someone calls the first number, the line
| immediately picks up and feeds a second phone line into the first
| (giving you a dial tone). You can either make it two-way or one-
| way. I can't remember the design (I built it 20 years ago) and
| I'm shit at electronics, but it was really simple, so hopefully
| another old head can reply with a schematic (I think I used
| photodiodes/photoresistors for some of it?).
|
| And now that I think of it.... If you can't find an international
| dialup provider, you could just pay someone to run a dialup
| server for you. Just a computer with a modem and one phone line,
| and a broadband connection. Set up a DUN server on the computer
| (old Windows machines could do this) and NAT connections out on
| the broadband line. Your own private dial-up provider.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| ah, ring-back, of course! thank you so much! this one no doubt
| can at least save on phone calls: I can set it up with twilio,
| or even the cheapest Dellmont reseller: ok, great... then yes,
| I could have a friend with a 'very old style' BBS kind of
| setup, but best would be an already made service
|
| Oh, wait I sec, I've got a possible solution here: the UK
| service ZEN cited by thinkingemote
| https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/DialUp-FAQs plus a
| callback triggered by a text message: form Ethiopia I send a
| message to a SMS in twilio, this will trigger an API that with
| a Twilio (or cheaper Dellmont) provider which will call ZEN in
| the UK and me in Ethiopia: then I need to answer with a modem
| (I need the proper hardware modem I guess..... uh. it's really
| a shame I cannot use my mobile phone!!)
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| It's technically possible to use a mobile voice channel for
| dial-up, but very difficult. The GSM voice channel bandwidth
| is 2400 baud, and it's a lossy-compression codec. In the best
| case you'd get around 1kbps. But you could try it...
| disassemble an old Nokia, hook the mic and speaker up to a
| circuit that regulates the voltage and resistance to that of
| a phone line off the hook, and hook that up to an old analog
| modem (or use some software to make your computer's sound
| card act like an analog modem and skip the line regulator).
| I'm sure someone has tried this but I can't find it from
| googling.
| Y_Y wrote:
| Can you send and receive texts internationally? You could have
| your emails relayed. My old phone company offered this, but I bet
| there's something you could run yourself.
|
| Otherwise ring me and give me your password and I'll read the
| emails to you.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| "Otherwise ring me and give me your password and I'll read the
| emails to you"
|
| uh, this is smart and very KISS! really!
|
| So YES: somebody _read_ our emails and in the meanwhile get rid
| of useless content!
|
| out of curiosity: if our friend who reads our email create ad
| audio file while reading, I guess we cannot send the super
| compressed audio file as DATA (to save on international phone
| costs)?
| jccooper wrote:
| If you can get data, audio would not be the best way to
| transport emails; just send text instead.
|
| You could have emails relayed via SMS, either manual or
| automated. There are such relay services. (It'd get pretty
| expensive if you pay per SMS message.)
|
| If you have voice only, you could have someone record a
| reading and play it to you at high speed to save on minutes.
| You'd record and play at slow speed.
| yorwba wrote:
| You could maybe use text-to-speech set to very high speed so
| the call doesn't take too long.
| tomcooks wrote:
| that's what a modem does, but better
| oriettaxx wrote:
| uh, super cool! thanks!
| sethammons wrote:
| Could set up twilio to do all this (disclaimer, employee).
| oriettaxx wrote:
| Interesting: I have a dormant twilio account that I better
| refresh a bit :)
|
| btw: does Twilio have some tools to send data splitted in
| text messages (with a proper client to re-compose the whole
| message)?
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| No you'd have to write the client code yourself. Are mobile
| numbers at risk from being disconnected?
| candiodari wrote:
| Would starlink work?
| AlexAndScripts wrote:
| Starlink would be quite easy to track down if they didn't want
| people having internet.
| iso1210 wrote:
| The people capable of tracking starlink terminals (assuming
| they are camoflagued enough so they aren't visible from the
| street) are unlikely to be too concerned with an average
| person, they've got bigger fish to fry.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| by "track down" you mean shut down or to know we are using
| it?
|
| Is it this one https://www.starlink.com ?
| krisoft wrote:
| I don't know about the attitudes, or signal inteligence
| capabilities of the forces in question. By "track down"
| pretty much the worst case situation what has been rummored
| to have happened with Marie Colvin.
|
| She was a journalist covering the conflict in Syria when
| she died. It is rummored that the local forces triangulated
| her location using her satelite signal and shelled the
| building she was in which led to her death.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Colvin
| iso1210 wrote:
| If you are targeted like Marie was, and you're asking for
| advice on HN, you're screwed already.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| o.m.g.
|
| "Journalist Jean-Pierre Perrin and other sources reported
| that the building had been targeted by the Syrian Army,
| identified using satellite phone signals."
|
| "Reporters working in Homs feared the Army had "locked
| on" to their satellite phone signals and targeted the
| buildings they were coming from" https://www.telegraph.co
| .uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/...
| chrisMyzel wrote:
| with starlink you need to place the dish (size of a large
| pizza) towards the clear sky...from an helicopter this is
| very much visible. I think this he refers to. Given they
| are focused on searching for these. Long Range WiFi can
| be much more stealth to setup.
| chrisMyzel wrote:
| Starlink at the current point still requires nearby ground
| stations. These might be in another country but the satellite
| has to see both the client and the ground station at the same
| time.
| habibur wrote:
| today I learned.
| [deleted]
| noja wrote:
| Would something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.A.T.M.A.N.
| work? From what I understand as people gain and lose internet
| connectivity through whatever means, that becomes available to
| the network.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| It looks like it's "only" a way to connect mobiles phone to
| each other without having the internet or even a telecom
| operator, doesn't it?
|
| I had a nightmare two nights ago of being stuck in a
| neighborhood downtown Addis during a conflict without any phone
| connection: with my stunning super powerful phone in my hand,
| but with NO way to communicate to somebody else around me:
| completely useless peace of hardware (using even too much
| electricity).
| throwawayit1234 wrote:
| To speak to this more broadly:
|
| Internet disconnections are not uncommon in Ethiopia but it
| is far from the end of the world. Despite the alarmist nature
| of some of the press currently, I don't believe that Addis
| itself will be significantly impacted. There's just too much
| shared interest in keeping Addis functioning for anyone
| including the residents to let things devolve too far.
|
| It may be uncomfortable at times (stock up on movies and
| shows before you get there to keep you occupied during
| internet hiccups), get a generator or live in a building with
| one, make sure you have enough airtime on your SIM card to
| call internationally if necessary, and remain low-key during
| the tougher moments should they crop up.
|
| Also, stock up on supplies like water, fuel, snacks, etc.
| (supply chains in Addis have never been great to begin with),
| Build a small network of people you trust and can communicate
| with (domestic help, favorite cab drivers, etc.) Like in most
| places, don't be an jerk, treat people well (tip well also)
| and they'll reciprocate.
|
| TLDR: Regardless of what happens, Addis will be fine. It
| might be uncomfortable at times but Addis tends to swing
| toward stability despite what's happening elsewhere. Even IF
| the city gets captured, those doing the capturing will need
| it too.
|
| Source: been through situations like these in a number of
| places (including Addis)
| oriettaxx wrote:
| you are super right and I see you know the context pretty
| well
|
| > and remain low-key during the tougher moments
|
| this is probably the best, so I even regret my request here
| tbh.
| throwawayit1234 wrote:
| Is there a way to contact you privately? Didn't see anything
| in your bio.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| hi throwawayit1234, I see you've just created your account
| and I'm a bit uncomfortable with giving my details: sorry,
| just paranoia probably. I may contact you if you tell me
| how.
|
| sorry, once again.
| throwawayit1234 wrote:
| No problem, I've updated my profile now
| adamcharnock wrote:
| This is may be a long shot, but I wonder what "shut down the
| internet" means from the ISPs perspective?
|
| Do they turn off their 2/3/4G services at the tower, or do they
| just stop passing traffic to their upstream providers?
|
| If the latter then it _may_ mean that devices on the same network
| can still communicate with each other. I don't think this will
| solve your problem, but it may still be helpful in some cases.
| ev1 wrote:
| At least for Iran, all ISPs are upstreamed through the state
| (TIC, ITC, etc, see the map of AS12880 and related), they can
| just drop that one choke point and everyone is offline.
|
| Ethiopia only has one AS/provider apparently: 24757 ETHIO-
| TELECOM
| rubyfan wrote:
| I read about this a while ago, not sure if it's helpful since I
| don't think it's exactly what you're looking for. Seems like you
| need collaborators to make this work.
|
| https://mycelium-mesh.net/category/about.html
| tomcooks wrote:
| - use PPP to get your modem working https://wiki.debian.org/PPP,
| but make sure providers in Kenia still offer this service
|
| - get sd cards and usb drives ready, so if all else fails you can
| institute a sneakernet like they do in Cuba
|
| - consider using radio
|
| - consider using scuttlebutt and/or briar, manyverse is a good
| android scuttlebutt client
| tpmx wrote:
| Traditional dial-up internet over some GSM voice codec probably
| won't work well. (https://superuser.com/questions/748154/use-a-
| smartphone-as-a...)
| hajstl wrote:
| Nokia 8210 over GPRS and connected to the PC via Bluetooth is
| perfectly fine for reading email and text web sites.
|
| https://kikuyumoja.com/2006/10/31/how-touse-gprs-in-kenya/
| ectopod wrote:
| This is just 2G internet, so surely it is one of the things
| the authorities will switch off.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| "the problem with cell phones is that they've never provided a
| full 64kbps digital audio channel like the landline PSTN did"
|
| omg!
| aqnxhd wrote:
| Its not hard to find a landline.
| oriettaxx wrote:
| Yes, that is true.
|
| Last year the landline we had where we where living was
| transformed to a VOIP when the internet connection was
| converted from ADSL to optic-fiber, but the majority of land
| lines are still on copper.
|
| So yes!, a landline with a modem connection to an internet
| provider operator.
|
| Now:
|
| - need to find an internet provider for incoming modem
| connection: any idea? I've searched the internet: did not
| find anything but I guess I am not using the correct mix of
| keywords
|
| - I guess I need to purchase a dedicated modem (hardware), or
| best would be to use a mobile phone (the Jack headphone the
| article is talking about) with proper software.
| iso1210 wrote:
| You'd need an out-of-country provider, you'd have to assume
| international calls aren't disconnected, and I do think
| you'll be disapointed with modem speeds over international
| circuits
| [deleted]
| Robotbeat wrote:
| On which continent?
|
| https://blog.4psa.com/africa-skips-landlines-goes-
| straight-t...
| cpach wrote:
| Hm, tricky! Could satellite Internet be of use...?
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(page generated 2021-11-06 23:02 UTC)