'Ratbag' engineers make NBN kill switch unlikely:

Basically if there is a phone connection to outside the borders the internet cant be blocked , it's just expensive

cant be blocked , it's just expensive

I had an Optus $5 a month account for a dial up service, as a backup, and for when I traveled. However in these days of USB wireless modems, I decided I didn't need it, so I decided to cancel. This was what? 1 year ago?

When I rang them, they gave me a $30 credit bonus for canceling, as they wanted to decommission their dial up modems, and felt this was a good way to deal with existing customers.

If ISPs are heading that way, and if dial up modems become as scarce as 3.5" drives on modern computers, then to dial out in 5 or 10 years time, may well be an impossibility.

You would have to find a country with a dial up service, and be able to sign up for it. Will that be possible in the future?

Cheers Don...

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Formally you are right but the point is that internet can be blocked as mass media and communication tool, if government wanted to hide something from the nation they wouldn't give a s*it if you and maybe five others accessed the internet from overseas.

Tom

I assume you mean 3.5" floppy disk drives.

Once you have access the information will be disseminated hence the crap over the bloke who exposed the US govco with public information two fronts there , the fact it wasn't hidden and he had the cheek to expose the despots

Uhhhmmm......

Did I leave out floppy? That can be painful on a winters night.

:-)

Cheers Don...

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Probably join the list of 5" and 8" floppy drives.

I've still got a box (sealed) of brand new Commoder 1.2MB 5' floppies and also a copy of MS-DOS 4.01 on 5" floppies. Sadly all my 8' floppies went years ago.

Something to be said for an 8" floppy :-)

Alan

-- Sell your surplus electronic components at

the bloke who exposed the US govco with public information

the despots

What you do with information, post it on Wikileaks for other five Australian with internet to read?

Tom

cite on reduced numbers or is that just a bull s**te guess ? remember you can call overseas and take a connection from there or by other means which needn't be disseminated

You can have whatever info you want, but with the internet down for the country, how are you going to share it with large numbers of your fellow Australians ?? Unless they can all dial up to overseas as well, there is no option for spreading.

Think 1980's when there was no internet for the ordinary person.

In the early days before the interweb became common there were BBs's and of course several other ways you can't shut it up

That was how Fidonet(worldwide BBS system) operated. It is just a matter of who has modems and software salted away.

I used to run a bbs with dozens of regular callers , had a hellofa collection :)

course several other ways

Agreed. However say every 13 year old kid had web access via their phone, and every home had access. We have what 22 million people? At a wild over estimated guess say 20 million people have good access to the internet, and 2 million didn't.

we have about 200 ISPs:

If Joolia sent the army in to close them all down, and keep them closed (which is doable), then what percentage of the the 20 million would have access to on line communications via overseas link ups to dial up modems?

I don't think you could do much social networking with that. It is about sharing information, as was previously stated.

I often wonder how easy it would be to shut down the NBN, which will be running mainly on a slender thread of silica glass. I guess about the same as a copper run. You just don't have to axe though as much of it, if axe is your weapon of choice.

Cheers Don...

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The Government's second phase would be to legislate against the use of the Internet, probably on the grounds of National Security or such like. Find a few geeks who bypassed the kill switch and string them up as an example. Fear is an effective non-technical strategy.

Why do we 'want' a killswitch?

Pendantic point 5.25 inches, we can't go around without that 1/4".

We don't, but pollies like JooLiar might?????? Large amount snipped.

And how hard is to block the phone calls. In 60's and 70's I've seen whole country with STD and international calls disabled for weeks at a time during unrests...

Tom