Ask HN: Connect to the Internet the old way during next Ethiopian lockdown? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Connect to the Internet the old way during next Ethiopian lockdown?

129 pointsoriettaxx96 comments

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)

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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 However, many carriers discontinued support for CSD when it was superseded by GPRS and EDGE.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.

I built an app like this in my college days! That is, an app that can send network requests over voice, decode the voice channel response (which comes from some proxy), and render it in a useful way or pass it off to some other process.

Tried to revisit this approach last year, but Android security restrictions now make tapping calls impossible

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.

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!!)

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.

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.

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.

This is a salient point I hadn't considered. I absolutely would not trust a mob or even most armies if they catch you in hostile territory with a radio at all, much less a sophisticated radio that might be able to interoperate with an army's.

At the high end of the price range, some of the satellite internet receivers aren't outrageously conspicious, like this [1]. I mean, it's odd looking, but you could probably pass it off as something at least semi-innocuous like a proprietary wireless receiver for audio-video gear or something. From a naive perspective, it screams "wifi" to me, rather than satellite. I'd just tear the silver regulatory label off a consumer wifi router and replace the one on that box with it.

1. https://satellitephonestore.com/catalog/sale/details/thales-...

Are you really that desparate to dive into a war, it sounds like you have a choice?

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.

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.

yes, exactly (plus we do not get there sailing :) :)

> 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.

> 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

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.

> I've also seen some evidence that new Wifi standards will also allow for this, which is utterly terrifying.

There are legitimate uses for this, but it's frustrating that we have to feel opposed because it will definitely be abused. I for one would like to be able to implement my own presence tracking for rooms in my house without needing additional hardware.

I just don't want Facebook to do the same thing.

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

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?

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.

Ah, didn't think of legs. Classic mistake

We're in 2021, we have wheels

This really didn't work too well in practicality. My friends in Myanmar tried using it.

What where the main issues?

Satellite is probably the best option. Probably Inmarsat's BGAN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Global_Area_Network

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.

Not satellite phone; satellite internet. But it's definitely expensive.

maybe something like this one https://www.thuraya.com/en/products-list/land-voice/thuraya-... ?

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.

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

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.

yes, "dial up" is what I meant, thanks for specifying it.

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.

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

They turn off 2/3/4G in many places completely. Sometimes, entire cell towers can be cut off to selectively cut off calls/SMS.

I am curious, too.

During one of the many internet lockdown I've experienced there I know Ethiotel allowed some Embassies to have their ADSL restored (the lockdown lasted almost a month): there was no internet even in very expensive western hotel: a couple of manager where telling me they were about have the internet back, but then this did not happen.

As for internet on mobile (which, btw, has becoming really fast last year: 4G with easy 100Mb up/down, in central Addis only, of course) I expect some people close to the government may still have internet access (the country have strong socialist background, and is not Nigeria, but power and money can move a lot as everywhere).

Technically I think it should be pretty easy to selectively lock the internet by working on the APN: you can lock the ordinary one that is pushed on every phone, and have another one for "friends".

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.

"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)?

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.

You could maybe use text-to-speech set to very high speed so the call doesn't take too long.

that's what a modem does, but better

uh, super cool! thanks!

Could set up twilio to do all this (disclaimer, employee).

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)?

No you'd have to write the client code yourself. Are mobile numbers at risk from being disconnected?

I think a lot of ideas are already here, but...

Figure out which outside country or countries are going to be least expensive to call (possibly through a dialback scheme), and then find a dial-up ISP in there and try to get an account setup.

A problem you'll have is a lot of free community access dial-up systems have shut down, and setting up an account in a foreign country where you have to pay for it, may be difficult. A lot of commercial dial-up services have also shut down too.

If you can make inexpensive calls to the US and/or Canada, you might be able to find something. I've seen references (in this thread and elsewhere) to "free" UK dialup, but it's using special rate phone numbers, so it's more like billed to your phone account dialup, and that may not be possible through whatever carrier you have available. Similar, I think for Germany.

It's worth sending a mail to xs4all; they did something for Libya, but they were also planning to shut off their dial-up service in October 2021. https://boingboing.net/2011/02/22/free-dial-up-isp-for.html (contact form https://www.xs4all.nl/klant/welcome-to-xs4all/ )

Traditional dial-up internet over some GSM voice codec probably won't work well. (https://superuser.com/questions/748154/use-a-smartphone-as-a...)

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/

This is just 2G internet, so surely it is one of the things the authorities will switch off.

"the problem with cell phones is that they've never provided a full 64kbps digital audio channel like the landline PSTN did"

omg!

Its not hard to find a landline.

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.

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

On which continent?

https://blog.4psa.com/africa-skips-landlines-goes-straight-t...

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.

Telecomix (activist groups) managed to rustle up lots of dialup modems for Egypt in 2011.. but it's a decade ago

"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.

> 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.

> grant an exemption to your IP range for business reasons?

I really doubt this: during last year one month lockdown we really struggle to get it (embassies, hotels....): and due to covid we where not even able to go to Kenya

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.

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...

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).

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.

- 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

Twillio offers API level text message sending. You'd use a twitter API -> twillio -> sms bridge to have twitter available…

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.

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)

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.

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).

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)

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.

Is there a way to contact you privately? Didn't see anything in your bio.

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.

No problem, I've updated my profile now

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

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.

I mean long-range bridges (up to 15km) like D-Link, Microtik, Ubiquiti, etc.

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.

What happened to Facebook's LEO satellite constellation that was obviously going to target Africa? I know they did some launches

Another long shot: contact starlink team and see if they can sponsor you. It's could be great PR for them.

Doubt they can do that. I believe people in Myanmar tried. Paraphrasing here, but they can't do it yet.

I would reasure with tech to satelite internet.

Hm, tricky! Could satellite Internet be of use…?

Would starlink work?

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.

today I learned.

Starlink would be quite easy to track down if they didn't want people having internet.

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.

by "track down" you mean shut down or to know we are using it?

Is it this one https://www.starlink.com ?

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

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/...

If you are targeted like Marie was, and you're asking for advice on HN, you're screwed already.

:) :)

no, no. I am a sys-admin and developer: I just need to keep my job running while having to be there for awhile.

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.

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.

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.

:) 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" :)

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