Egyptian Internet service was restored this week after hackers started building a Fidonet based Bulletin Board Network which allowed Egyptians to connect to the Internet via telephone and modem. The fallback plan announced by hacker group Anonymous on twitter resulted in partial restoration of service, inducing the authorities to restore broadband services in fear of being overtaken by the hackers.
This is in stark contrast to claims by Computerworld that Mubarak’s “border gateway protocol” had triumphed. The supposed Internet Kill Switch had absolutely no effect on dialup. Much of Egypt was still reachable by telephone line as #Egypt twitter followers offered free calls to ISPS based in Europe and elsewhere.
The plan to fallback to Net 1.0 may have been greeted sceptically by those used to rich media on Web 2.0, but it meant a lifeline to Egyptian demonstrators was kept open, allowing communication to occur independently of the Egyptian authorities, which had sort earlier to clamp down on connectivity.
Pls RT Modem DailUp 4 #Egypt activists Internet no +96290005000 or +962090005000, its in #jo- it wld be intl call”
Read one tweet as thousands of anti-Mubarak supports gathered in Tahrir Square.
South Africans were quick to respond to the online demonstration, with some local organisations actively supporting the “revolution” on the ground.
Put a 17 hour curfew on the Egyptian Embassy in Pretoria by flooding them with emails, faxes and telephone calls until Mubarak F OFF! From 31 January 2011 at least one email/fax/call every hour per person to Tel: 012 343 1590/Fax: 012 343 1082Telex: 322 222 E-mail: [email protected]
A protest march in Cape Town, Friday, saw hundreds supporting the call for Mubarak to step down
Meanwhile, Egyptian government websites fell to hackers associated with the Anonymous hacker group.