Connectivity status for Egypt

Fri Jan 28 15:15:19 UTC 2011

Al Arabiya is reporting (via twitter) that the Internet has been shut of in Syria (where I have not heard of reports of protests).

I have no confirmation of this as yet.

Regards
Marshall

On Jan 27, 2011, at 9:47 PM, Danny O'Brien wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 6:07 PM, Roy <r.engehausen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 1/27/2011 3:47 PM, Danny O'Brien wrote:
>> 
>>> Around 2236 UCT, we lost all Internet connectivity with our contacts in
>>> Egypt, and I'm hearing reports of (in declining order of confirmability):
>>> 
>>> 1) Internet connectivity loss on major (broadband) ISPs
>>> 2) No SMS
>>> 4) Intermittent connectivity with smaller (dialup?) ISPs
>>> 5) No mobile service in major cities -- Cairo, Alexandria
>>> 
>>> The working assumption here is that the Egyptian government has made the
>>> decision to shut down all external, and perhaps internal electronic
>>> communication as a reaction to the ongoing protests in that country.
>>> 
>>> If anyone can provide more details as to what they're seeing, the extent,
>>> plus times and dates, it would be very useful. In moments like this there
>>> are often many unconfirmed rumors: I'm seeking concrete reliable
>>> confirmation which I can pass onto the press and those working to bring
>>> some
>>> communications back up (if you have a ham radio license, there is some
>>> very
>>> early work to provide emergency connectivity. Info at:
>>> http://pastebin.com/fHHBqZ7Q )
>>> 
>>> Thank you,
>>> 
>>> I suggest that you confine your information to the press on what you know
>> rather than speculation on the cause.
>> 
>> "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
>> stupidity, but don't rule out malice"
>> 
>> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
>> 
>> 
> That is indeed one of the reasons why I'm seeking corroboration of the
> pattern of behaviour; at least to isolate and eliminate any alternative
> explanations. It would certainly be of operational interest (and certainly
> not unknown in the annals of historical "stupidity") if, say, a single
> fiber-cut or network upgrade was disrupting all of these different forms of
> communication simultaneously.  On the other hand, there's only a finite
> number of imaginary backhoes you can conjure up before other explanations
> begin to trump Hanlon's razor.
> 
> Right now, I think that http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450 explains (or at least
> illustrates) why we were getting reports of widespread but not universal
> Internet interruption. See also
> http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml .
> 
> I don't have a good explanation for the SMS problems, but lots of
> independent reports; I've yet to have any real confirmation of no mobile
> service, and lots of denials, so right now I'm going to assume that's
> untrue.
> 
> If anyone can get explanations from their peers in the region, please pass
> them on (however incomplete or informal -- mail me directly if you'd rather
> not contribute to rumors or non-operational NANOG discussions).
> 
> It's late at night in Egypt, and the biggest protests are planned for
> tomorrow. A great deal of life-critical systems will be under a great deal
> of stress during that time, and the interruptions in network connectivity
> would be extremely worrying.
> 
> Thanks for checking this out,
> 
> d.
> 