
Ask HN: How Belarus can keep connected despite internet blackout? - izik
Hello hackers. What would be your advice for Belarus protesters to keep connected to each other and the rest of the world.There are some solutions for short-range communication (e.g. https:&#x2F;&#x2F;briarproject.org&#x2F;), but what are the solutions for the mid-range (e.g. city) and long-range (hundreds of kilometers) communication? I suppose the HAM radio could be used for that or AMPRNet. Any ideas how to provide low-cost, decentralized, communication infrastructure for the time when internet is cut off?
======
varjag
There is no plausible solution for multitude of reasons listed in other
comments.

What I suggest, perhaps as last ditch effort, is look in the opposite
direction: attacking the remaining Beltelecom and mobile layer2/3 connectivity
in the country.

The only reason the limited networking is still up and running is not some
residual generosity of the regime. It is because traditional PSTN and long
range special comms services are all routed via IP trunking these days.
Disrupting these will also disrupt operations level communication between KGB,
police and presidential security units that are squashing the protests.

(Жыве Беларусь!)

~~~
gnarea
> There is no plausible solution for multitude of reasons listed in other
> comments. > What I suggest, perhaps as last ditch effort, is look in the
> opposite direction: attacking the remaining Beltelecom and mobile layer2/3
> connectivity in the country.

Is that really plausible though? I'm sure it's technically doable, but I'm not
sure it's realistic or even a good idea if you could pull it off.

Who has the ability _and_ incentive to carry out such an attack? You could
hire someone to do a DDoS attack, for example, but who would pay for that?

Let's say you've pulled it off. Have you considered the collateral damage?

Can we be certain that whoever has the capacity to do this will only ever use
it "for good"? What's "for good" anyway?

Have you even considered that not all the people who remained connected in the
country may be government officials? I don't know about this specific Internet
blackout, but quite often other organisations (e.g., international NGOs,
consulates/embassies, hotels) remain connected (see this for example:
[https://qz.com/africa/1884387/ethiopia-internet-is-back-
on-b...](https://qz.com/africa/1884387/ethiopia-internet-is-back-on-but-oromo-
tensions-remain/)).

~~~
baybal2
> Is that really plausible though? I'm sure it's technically doable, but I'm
> not sure it's realistic or even a good idea if you could pull it off.

I'd say a blackout may well pull more people to the street, and open more
opportunities for spontaneous openings. The same was in USSR in 1991.

People are actually being attracted by the sound of gunfire, fire, and smoke,
if all other decision making inputs are cut off.

Sounds of intense gunfire in a city often result in people being inadvertently
"herded" into big crowds, and formation of street-to-street fronts, which
result in assailants being surrounded.

Then, when people see enemies surrounded, and trembling in fear, human primal
instincts kick in, and crazy things happen. Moscow 1991, Bishkek 2010, Kyiv
2014, Istanbul 2016 all demonstrated that effect.

How powerful can it be? There were historical precedents when such spontaneous
crowds went on offensive again fully armed military forces, and won, with
Istanbul, and Bishkek events being the most vivid.

In Bishkek, a column of smoke rising from a key government building, along
with a comms blackout, was enough to instantaneously gather a crowd of
5000-6000 bystanders, and onlookers who in just 3-4 hours turned into am
unstoppable human wave.

It were these complete randoms who then marched against an elite SF battalion,
10+ snipers, fire from 12.7mm, _took 5 RPG shots (!!!)_ , and, in the end,
still managed to steamroll that battalion to the last man. Even the relatively
tame footage that managed to escape Youtube censorship if still horrifying.

I cannot find the original Euronews footage on the net now, but here is the
video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zUSe2peRE&t=30s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zUSe2peRE&t=30s)
(quite intense, be prepared.) Take a look at the footage starting at 0:30, and
give attention to what happens after 1:05.

~~~
totetsu
From the "Kyrgyz Revolution" wikipedia page. "the Eurasian Daily Monitor
reported on 1 April that, for two weeks, the Kremlin had used the Russian mass
media to run a negative campaign against Bakiyev.[20] Russia controls much of
the media in Kyrgyzstan.[20] The campaign sought to associate Bakiyev and his
son, Maxim Bakiyev, with an allegedly corrupt businessman whose company had
worked in a government project. "

~~~
baybal2
Yes, not to say that Russia was a beneficiary of all of that was more than an
understatement. The end result of that was the closure of USA base there, at a
laughable cost for the Kremlin.

It does not still negate the fact that Bakiyev totally deserved that outcome,
as an amoral, corrupt, and incompetent president, regardless of whom
capitalised on the outcome of his ousting.

USA has a terrible talent betting on political leaders who are almost certain
to lose power.

------
throwaway89201
I'm surprised Scuttlebutt [1][2] hasn't gotten a mention.

It allows you to create your own social media feed with messages, responses
and media completely offline. You then gossip that feed to anyone you want,
for example via the local (WiFi) network or even by USB stick. Long range
communication is done by car or by train.

There are servers (pubs) that can be used for more real-time communication. Or
to make the information available on the internet after it has been sneaked
out of Belarus. The main pubs have a dedicated, friendly and active community.
[3]

[1] [https://scuttlebutt.nz](https://scuttlebutt.nz)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjphvcd8Sw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xjphvcd8Sw)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbzGpKffQuM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbzGpKffQuM)

~~~
eitland
One really dangerous thing about it is that once you send something it just
won't disappear.

What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet and all that, but no reason
to write everything in stone - especially in times and places where
governments thinks it is a good idea to cut Internet.

~~~
nix23
>One really dangerous thing about it is that once you send something it just
won't disappear.

That thing is called Internet..Information never goes away, not even in the
real world.

~~~
viraptor
It's not that black and white. Some communicators for example delete messages
after a specified time and don't archive by default. It's not perfect, and
it's not supposed to be. But it still raises the bar a bit - if your peer is
not compromised, you can at least hope the history goes away.

Same could be done with "permanent" message by rotating shared encryption keys
and discarding old ones for example, so you can build something with better
privacy on top.

~~~
nix23
>It's not that black and white. Some communicators for example delete messages
after a specified time and don't archive by default. It's not perfect, and
it's not supposed to be

If something is not secure you can forget it by default, there is NO
information system than can securely delete and protect it's delivered end
user information, no DRM no Snapchat nothing, the consumed and delivered
message can always be seen.

~~~
viraptor
First, that's why I wrote "hope" and mentioned it's not perfect. But "the
consumed and delivered message can always be seen" is just incorrect. _IF_
both sides destroy either the message or the encryption keys for it, then no,
it can't be seen. (Just the metadata about it being sent)

~~~
nix23
> is just incorrect.

Your thinking is too narrow, i just make a screenshot of your message, or
filming your Video from the Screen, that's what i mean by 'consumed', but yes
if both party's delete the message normal encryption is enough even 'just'
with forward secrecy, but the metadata is often much more interesting (even
the NSA said that).

------
oconnore
All of these censorship resistant communication projects tend to assume that
the network needs to be low latency, always connected, etc. It’s far easier to
build a robust network if you relax that assumption, and cheap hard drives +
e2e encryption mean you ought to be able to route a large volume of private
p2p messaging / email in addition to any curated content that’s distributed
more widely.

[https://boingboing.net/2018/05/03/inside-cubas-massive-
weekl...](https://boingboing.net/2018/05/03/inside-cubas-massive-weekly.html)
[https://www.wired.com/2017/07/inside-cubas-diy-internet-
revo...](https://www.wired.com/2017/07/inside-cubas-diy-internet-revolution/)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paquete_Semanal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paquete_Semanal)

~~~
gnarea
Agreed 100%. That's precisely how Relaynet works (hence the name):
[https://relaynet.network/](https://relaynet.network/)

~~~
urza
I read the whole page and didn't find any information how it is supposed to
actually work. The page compares Relaynet with Starlink and Ballons, but then
it doesn't say how Relaynet work.

~~~
gnarea
Hey Urza. There's a page and a corresponding video for each type of
stakeholder: end users, service providers and couriers (who step in to restore
connectivity with a secure sneakernet). Those are quite high-level on purpose.

If you're interested in the cryptographic and networking details, the specs is
probably what you want. At least the introduction to the core spec:
[https://specs.relaynet.network/RS-000](https://specs.relaynet.network/RS-000)

~~~
urza
Hi, unfortunately I am not much wiser from the specs. It describes higher
level network/app protocols, no mention on the underlying mechanism of
communication. Can you give me example of the hardware on which it is supposed
to run and how it would work in Belarus?

~~~
gnarea
Hi Urza,

(Apologies for the late reply. I'm new around here and I didn't remember that
HN won't send me an email notifications for replies to my comments.)

Before getting into Relaynet, let's consider how Internet apps work: They have
a client and a server, and the client is responsible for producing _and_
delivering its own data. That means that the server must be reachable _and_
ready to respond to each request, at the exact time each takes place. This
architecture (called Remote Procedure Call, RPC) is fine when the Internet is
available, but it breaks when the Internet is cut off and it's also
incompatible with alternative transports because they add a significant
latency.

By contrast, Relaynet apps use a radically different architecture:
Asynchronous messaging. Instead of clients/servers, apps have "endpoints"; and
instead of requests/responses, endpoints exchange "messages". Endpoints
_delegate_ the delivery of such messages to one or more brokers, which we call
"gateways" in Relaynet. This way, the sender and receiver don't have to be
reachable and ready at the same time, because the gateways will keep a copy of
each message until it reaches its final destination. Consequently, when the
Internet is available, gateways will use it and messages would be delivered
instantly, but when the Internet is cut off, gateways will switch to a
_secure_ sneakernet
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet)).
Additionally, endpoint messages (called "parcels" in Relaynet) are end-to-end
encrypted and signed, so gateways can't tamper with them or see what's inside.

Behind the scenes, Relaynet apps communicate over the Internet/sneakernets via
two gateways: A private gateway (a standalone app on the user's device) and a
public gateway (a server-side app). Say Twitter supports Relaynet and exposes
an endpoint at
[https://api.twitter.com/relaynet](https://api.twitter.com/relaynet): When you
post a tweet, your Twitter app will encapsulate it in a parcel bound for
[https://api.twitter.com/relaynet](https://api.twitter.com/relaynet), but
instead of delivering the parcel by itself, it'd send it to its local private
gateway, which will in turn send it to its public gateway, and which will
finally deliver it to Twitter's endpoint. Now consider the case where the
Twitter server wants to send you data: It'd post the data to your public
gateway (e.g., [https://eu.relaycorp.tech](https://eu.relaycorp.tech)), which
would in turn send to your private gateway, which will finally send it to the
endpoint in your local Twitter app; in this direction, the parcel is bound for
an opaque address derived from the public key of the endpoint (analogous to
Bitcoin addresses).

Now, when the Internet is cut off, your two gateways get disconnected. That's
when couriers
([https://relaynet.network/couriers](https://relaynet.network/couriers)) would
step in and provide a secure sneakernet. Couriers will _physically_ transport
parcels between a place disconnected from the Internet and one connected to
it. However, since parcels contain the address of the recipient, and that
address would identify the service when it's bound for an Internet host (e.g.,
[https://api.twitter.com/relaynet](https://api.twitter.com/relaynet)),
gateways will encapsulate those parcels in a new layer of end-to-end
encryption -- You can think of it as an "offline TLS". So couriers (or anyone
who intercepts them) won't be able to see or change the parcels being
transported.

As you may have anticipated by now, for a preexisting, Internet-based service
to work on Relaynet, its developer has to make client- and server-side changes
to their software. Alternatively, if the service offers an API, a third party
could build a Relaynet integration (that's what I did in the Relaynet proof of
concept with Twitter:
[https://twitter.com/relaynet_/status/1089211336171679745](https://twitter.com/relaynet_/status/1089211336171679745)).
Also, if you're building a service from scratch, you could build a fully
decentralised one that doesn't need any servers (see:
[https://relaynet.network/service-providers](https://relaynet.network/service-
providers))

Relaynet won't need any new/special hardware: Private gateways will support
Android 5+/Windows/Linux (macOS and iOS support is on the roadmap), so you can
use Relaynet as long as your device runs on one of those platforms.

I highly recommend watching this 12-minute video to learn more about how
couriers establish this connectivity and also to see a demo of the software
couriers will use:
[https://youtu.be/UXuLz3q_6bo](https://youtu.be/UXuLz3q_6bo).

How could this have worked in Belarus? Let's first assume that the
implementation of Relaynet is complete and at least one service (e.g.,
Twitter) is now compatible with it. Based on what I know about the situation
([https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disruption-hits-
belar...](https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disruption-hits-belarus-on-
election-day-YAE2jKB3)), this could've been done:

\- First of all, people should've ideally installed Relaynet and the Relaynet-
compatible app(s) they wish to use before the election (whilst the Internet is
available). Generally, people living under repressive regimes should aim to
have Relaynet installed before contentious events like elections. Starting to
use Relaynet without the Internet is possible but fiddly
([https://github.com/relaycorp/relayverse/issues/1](https://github.com/relaycorp/relayverse/issues/1)).

\- Similarly, couriers should've (ideally) planned their routes in advance,
especially if they'll be collaborating with other couriers or if they plan to
use Latvian/Lithuanian/Polish mobile Internet operators near their borders
(without actually crossing the border necessarily). Russian and Ukrainian
operators could potentially work too. Couriers would've also identified places
likely to remain connected to the Internet in the big cities (Minsk and
Barysaw seem to have been remained connected to some extend, although a lot of
that would've been government agencies:
[https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1293522490355064839](https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1293522490355064839)).

\- When the Internet was cut off, couriers would've stepped in by doing their
route: Stopping at one or more locations without access to the Internet, and
eventually getting to the nearest place with access to the Internet (somewhere
in Minsk/Barysaw or near the border with another country).

\- Each courier is free to charge their users if they want to (which would be
reasonable, considering the risk and work they have to do), but we're not
supporting that in any way in the software. That would be entirely between the
courier and the user.

PS: All of this complexity is abstracted away from the end user. As far as
they're concerned, all they need to do is install the private gateway and
it'll default to a public gateway behind the scenes. Also, we won't be using
this terminology with end users: The private gateway will simply be called the
"Relaynet app".

~~~
ignoramous
Nice. Thanks. Sounds like it is built on similar principles to scuttlebutt.

When would relay-net be ready?

------
OCuvui0i
During the arab spring, people in Tunisia managed to communicate with outside
world thanks to proxies set by outside crackers on tunisian governement's
servers. Turns out that when tyrants want to cut their people out of the
internet, they still want access themselves.

If crackers around the world want to actually be useful, now is the time.

------
ClumsyPilot
This duscussion is cute, but but situation in belarus is deteriorating and
people are being beaten and tortured in jail. Open this with google translate
yo get an idea:
[https://news.tut.by/society/696375.html](https://news.tut.by/society/696375.html)

I would say that if you want to help, first reach out to your representative /
government and put pressure on them to put pressure on belarus. It's a small
country that depends on trade with the free world.

Secondly, we need a crowdfunder to support people who've suffered grevious
bodily harm at the hands of this regime.

~~~
jmnicolas
> the free world

Ah the famous free world where our social media posts are heavily censored,
where lock-down was / is mandatory for a lot of us, and where protesting can
cost you an eye (at least 20 people lost an eye last year in France's Gillets
Jaunes protests).

Yes we still have it better than the Belorussians but free our world is
certainly not.

~~~
ClumsyPilot
Would you be content with calling it 'somewhat democratic world'?

~~~
jmnicolas
Depends what you mean by democratic. If you mean people can vote, then yes.
But if it means ruled by the people then I only see elites at the top.

I'm disillusioned with the western narrative about freedom. We can and should
do much better than the oligarchies we actually live in.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the rest of the world has it better than us,
but we're certainly not the paradise we pretend to be.

------
DoingIsLearning
For large gatherings you can have Bluetooth connected mesh networks. There are
apps that already implement this out of the box like Bridgefy or Briar.

You can have a network of consumer radio walkie talkies with privacy codes,
each node spread with a range of about 20km, depending on the weather and
terrain. But this is would need dedicated hardware which I assume is not
easily sourced in the current restricted environment.

Edit: Maybe if you setup a network of walkie talkies on rooftops you could
probably maximize the node spread if are able to keep line of sight across
each node.

~~~
barbegal
Are there any documents describing the actual user experiences of using
Bridgefy or Briar in a real life scenario. They seem like cool tools using
interesting technology but I am not convinced that they work well in practice
and it is difficult to find much information about where they have been used
successfully.

~~~
iansowinski
Not a document but Hong Kong protesters use it
[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49565587](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49565587)

~~~
barbegal
This article only states that the app had been downloaded more during the
protests. Reviews in the app store suggest it doesn't work reliably.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
For full-disclosure I have no first hand experience with Bridgefy or Briar, I
suggested the former because it seemed like an alternative to _Firechat_
(which apparently is no longer available).

Having said that, irrespective of the Application layer, all BT based mesh
networks are inherently fragile.

There are large performance variations accross BT chipsets (old/new and
different manufacturers) and externals like BT firmware, OS variations,
battery level, RF blocking/reflecting structures nearby, Law enforcement
jammers, the number of nodes available (the more nodes in a narrow area the
more fault tolerant it is), all of these factors affect the performance of
such a network.

The point is, OP is asking for help to scope out what are the options. None of
them are great, but the best we can do is to bring forward the known options
and hope that those struggling in this situation are able to implement
whatever they need to remain safe.

------
NietTim
If you can dial up, Dutch ISP XS4all has setup a free gateway:
[https://twitter.com/xs4all/status/1293153863030243328](https://twitter.com/xs4all/status/1293153863030243328)

------
urza
[https://disaster.radio/](https://disaster.radio/)

disaster.radio is an off-grid, solar-powered, long-range mesh network built on
free, open source software and affordable, open hardware.

Designed to be open, distributed, and decentralized, disaster.radio is
currently in the prototype/development phase.

~~~
zoobab
this is only for short messages via Lora, 40 chars at a time last time I
tried.

~~~
rch
Still good for shorthand, locations, coordinating communication by other
means, and the like.

------
gnarea
I think it depends on what exactly you need before, during and/or after the
protest.

Generally, I think Briar is your best bet for the _organisers_ of the protest,
since it's meant to communicate a group of people, but not broadcast data to
anyone (inc. strangers). It can help you before, during and after the protest.
However, you'll need a connection to the Internet to synchronise over what you
describe as mid- and long-ranges (it'd use Tor in that case).

One thing to note is that when a repressive regime cuts off the Internet, it
never gets to 100% of the affected population. At a minimum, certain
government institutions will remain connected, but often also international
organisations and hotels. Of course, in practice, finding which places remain
connected to the Internet will be hard, but these are some of the places you
could try. Also, if you have a land border and a SIM from the neighbour
country, you'll generally get mobile access near the border.

During the protest, I think the Qual.net project is worth considering,
although I must admit I haven't tried it myself.

 _Please_ , do not use FireChat or Bridgefy. They're pretty insecure: Data is
neither encrypted or signed.

Shameless plug:

I'm leading the Relaynet project
([https://relaynet.network/](https://relaynet.network/)), a technology to
restore connectivity when the Internet is totally cut off. Relaynet-compatible
apps will use the Internet seamlessly when it's available, but they'll switch
to a fallback medium (such as a sneakernet) when the Internet is cut off. No
additional hardware required.

Relaynet's proof of concept made it possible to post and receive tweets
without the Internet and we're currently funded by the Open Technology Fund.
The protocol suite has been independently audited. The Android implementation
will be ready by the end of the summer (and it'll also be audited).

Although we're focusing on connecting the general public, the security and
privacy guarantees it offers should also be adequate for protesters (subject
to the security/privacy guarantees of the Relaynet apps they use).
Consequently, the initial version of Relaynet should come in handy before and
after protests, and once we add support for Bluetooth-based meshnets (aka
"scatternets"), it should also support protesters during a protest.

------
est
During China's Xinjiang crackdown people use old fashioned dialup modems and
56kbps is better than 0kbps.

I think if you can still make cross border International phone calls you can
setup modem on both sides and create a end-to-end network.

~~~
bobthechef
I imagine it would be relatively easy to detect that kind of activity.

Maybe some kind of ad hoc mobile/mesh network stands a better chance, though
that too is detectable and jammable.

------
speedgoose
You need to be careful with long range radio solutions. Radio waves sources
are very easy to locate with cheap equipment. Wifi/Bluetooth is perhaps better
since it's already everywhere, but the range isn't good.

~~~
philprx
Watch out, Wifi and Bluetooth and any radio source can be located (with
direction finding, Time Difference on Arrival, ...).

It's sometime a bit more difficult: with spread spectrum technologies for
example, widely used wireless technologies that work well in dense usage. It
works also on cellular networks (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G).

Just so people don't get a false sense of security with some solutions.

------
adam-p
Psiphon (disclosure: where I work) largely kept Belarusians online:
[https://psix.ca/d/nyi8gE6Zk/regional-overview?orgId=2&var-
re...](https://psix.ca/d/nyi8gE6Zk/regional-overview?orgId=2&var-
region=BY&from=1596811582971&to=1597243582971) (Note that the 0 values before
the blocking aren't really zero -- they're just below the threshold that we
publicize. And connections aren't users, but... it's still a lot of people.)

There's a smattering of third parties confirming this, like:
[https://beincrypto.com/psiphon-connects-beincrypto-
journalis...](https://beincrypto.com/psiphon-connects-beincrypto-journalists-
stranded-in-belarus/)

~~~
madhead
Thank you for your work for us. The app behaves really well these days here!

------
atemerev
Two-way satellite modems were banned long ago in Belarus, so there is not much
equipment on hands.

Mesh / opportunistic network solutions are great in theory, but require the
installation of special software, which is difficult to coordinate on large
scale. Also, this is an adversarial environment. We need to assume that every
new network will be infiltrated by pro-government forces.

Only mobile internet was affected so far, so for now the most effective
response was encouraging people to remove their WiFi passwords.

------
pjc50
For everyone talking about solutions that involve short-range mesh networking:
Belarus is about 600km across and the capital Minsk is about 130km from the
border with the nearest free country, Lithuania.

For everyone talking about solutions that involve deploying additional
hardware: who's going to pay for it and how are you going to get it into
Belarus?

~~~
StevenWaterman
A large part of the reason for the blackout is to prevent people from
organising protests. Mesh networks are perfect for that kind of thing, as
generally you only need to communicate with people in the same city.

------
idof
In addition to short-range bluetooth app like Briar.

There exist long range communication : Meshtastic, with $20 devices you can
send messages with kilometers range.

What would be ideal is for Briar to embrace the "Bluetooth to LoRa node".

We can extend Briar Bluetooth network by adding Bluetooth to LoRa node that
can connect multiple bluetooth mesh networks together.

~~~
anakaine
LoRa cannot handle much data at all. At the lowest data rate you're talking 51
bytes taking 400ms to transmit. Its also far better at uplink traffic than
downlink, meaning 2 way communication is very, very, very limited.

~~~
bigiain
Yeah. Meshtastic in default (very long range) config has practical limits of
~30 nodes/users on a channel and can only broadcast old-school SMS style
messages across the mesh.

It's super fun to play with. But it isn't gonna "save democracy by
circumventing nations-state internet shutdowns"

------
lvs
This is an important area in which I feel development has been disappointing,
mainly because the commercial value isn't there. There are a few off-grid mesh
dongle products that have been released in the past few years. Unfortunately,
they're all crazy expensive.

Examples: [https://gotenna.com/](https://gotenna.com/)

[https://beartooth.com/](https://beartooth.com/)

[https://www.gotoky.com/](https://www.gotoky.com/)

[https://fogo.io/](https://fogo.io/)

They all rely on your phone and themselves cost more than a whole low-end
phone! I am really confused as to why meshing requires much additional
hardware that isn't already in a phone.

~~~
ClumsyPilot
Because we have no access or control over the actual phoone part of the phone
- the 4G/ cellular transmitter.

~~~
lvs
But you do have control over the wifi and bluetooth radios, which should be
fine in an urban setting or a protest.

------
keraf
I used to work for a Belarusian company (outside of Belarus). From what my ex-
colleagues told me, they have very little contact with the people in Minsk.
There's the occasional email or connected people on MS Teams. Not sure if
that's caused by people protesting or internet shutdown/filtering for offices
as well.

I also asked some Belarusian friends how they keep getting information from
there. They said they have intermittent access to Telegram but it works better
by using proxies. Some of the news channels on Telegram are managed by people
outside the country who receive the information via text message. Not sure
what type of block was in place (cellular data?).

Edit: Another Belarusian friend said he's able to communicate again with
people back home after 3 days of quasi constant blackout.

~~~
brabel
I have contacts in Belarus. They were completely offline for 3 days since
Sunday. Only today (12-Aug-2020 08:00 UTC approx) it seems the situation got
back to normal and I've heard from them.

People are just terrified now and all they want is peace. They know that
continuing protests is likely to result in a bloodbath and are understandably
afraid of that.

~~~
thewinnie
I would disagree with your last statement.

I have a lot of friends from Belarus, and at least from IT sector, they are
really eager to continue protests simply cause they are scarred what can
happen if current government will stay

~~~
brabel
At this point, it's very difficult to know if the people who want protests to
stop (even if they hate their government) are more numerous than the people
who want the protests to continue and grow until the government can be
replaced (with, from what I know in Belarus, is extremely unlikely - given
that there's zero opposition prepared to take over the Government). But at
least for now, things seem to be calming down instead of escalating.

~~~
petre
Russia will take over or get involved. Do not kid yourself that they won't.
Belarus has a direct border to Russia. They'll probably use protests to
install a pro Kremlin government just like they did in Ukraine before
Euromaidan sent him fleeing to Russia.

~~~
jitteriest
They are effectively one country already.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_State](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_State)

------
ignoramous
A YC company is (was?) working on creating mesh communication network from
just mobile devices (not sure if they can be deployed right away independent
of Internet connectivity): [https://volkfi.com/](https://volkfi.com/)

There are companies that sell software-defined radio products to help deploy
volunteer-run radio networks, but those may be easy to jam and/or illegal:
[https://limemicro.com/products/boards/limesdr/](https://limemicro.com/products/boards/limesdr/)

Not sure how far srsLTE ([https://www.srslte.com/](https://www.srslte.com/))
can go here without requiring special equipment and Internet connectivity
(someone well-versed can perhaps comment on its feasibility as a standalone
backhaul):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18569961](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18569961)

Walkie-talkies work nicely for comms but not secure, should work well enough
for coded messages; however.

I stumbled upon now-defunct [https://opentech.fund](https://opentech.fund)
backed [https://www.qaul.net](https://www.qaul.net) a few days back, developed
in response to censorship in MENA, that I personally like: They maintain a
mapping of devices (similar to BitTorrent) over Wifi P2P and/or Bluetooth to
create a decentralised secure routing network. No extra hardware needed.

------
Pick-A-Hill2019
A bit late to hop on flea-bay and get the relevant parts but certainly an
interesting trick posted a while back on HN entitled "Brazilian satellite
hackers use high-performance antennas and homebrew gear to turn U.S. Navy
satellites into their personal CB radios."
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=932997](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=932997)
(Original Wired link
[https://www.wired.com/2009/04/fleetcom/](https://www.wired.com/2009/04/fleetcom/)
)

A bit earlier today there was also a HN post about a re-play attack on VoLTE
encryption
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24129977](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24129977)

For information distribution look in to I2P as a means of caching popular News
sites. Local password free wi-fi access points (but obviously only for those
that can can risk a knock on the door). Power-Over-Ethernet Access Points are
useful.

Good luck to all.

------
sjg007
Seems like we need starlink wifi hotspots ... Imagine dropping those in
instead of leaflets.

~~~
practice9
It would be probably easily trackable by army and police. Unless you propose
setting them in random places anonymously or move often (setup the antenna on
the car)

------
gitgud
How about [1] " _Power-line Networking_ ". It's basically the act of using A/C
power-lines for a computer network.

They work okay in home networks, but due to the noise of the active A/C power-
line they don't scale that far.

Perhaps they could work in long distances at low bit-rates with high
redundancy error-correction to account for the noise. Sending email and text
messages...

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-
line_communication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-line_communication)

------
punnerud
In Hongkong everyone with an iPhone enabled airdrop and shared “posters” with
information: [https://qz.com/1660460/hong-kong-protesters-use-airdrop-
to-b...](https://qz.com/1660460/hong-kong-protesters-use-airdrop-to-breach-
chinas-firewall/)

Everyone should have an app like Canva, to easily add+edit text on images.
This way people can communicate without any new technology.

------
reustle
Maybe with Bridgefy?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861948](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861948)

------
zx_xma
Berty Tech is working on an offline first protocol, to provide privacy,
censorship resistance with an resilient mesh network. Full open source of
course, by a dedicated NGO based in France. Using BLE, gomobile, ipfs...

Feel free to join the community, and contribute, www.berty.tech
[https://github.com/berty](https://github.com/berty)

Cheers peers!

------
LinuxBender
To get videos and articles to the media, put redundant copies on USB thumb
drives and hide them in different places in the city. Tell different reporters
different locations to pick up the drives. Do not tell any single news agency
more than one location in the event they are compromised. Ensure you are not
seen hiding them. Thumb USB drives are very cheap and disposable.

To stay connected to each other, set up your own self hosted email servers.
Email is old but is well designed for this. It is also easier to set up than
IRC and does not depend on real time communication. Mail servers will queue
messages and retry periodically. Look for "HOW-TO: Dovecot Postfix". Set up
self hosted mail servers inside your country and configure them to relay to
external sites using HAM, Satellite, whatever you can get your hands on. Even
better, see if you can find obscure forms of internet that have not been
blocked. Dial-up for example. It isn't fast, but will relay emails and small
attachments just fine. Mail servers will queue messages and retry
periodically. Adjust attachment limits on your email servers and let your
friends know what that limit is. Use your own domains. Ensure that you
configure your mail servers to enforce TLS, or at least enforce it for domains
that you know use TLS. Most important, increase the retention time of the mail
spool so that the server will keep trying to send messages for a month instead
of a week. Get multiple accounts on mail servers hosted in other countries
that your mail server can authenticated and relay through. This eliminates the
need for things like FCrDNS, DMARC, etc... on your server. A dial-up will do
just fine. Read up on how to use postfix header checks to sanitized email
headers so that your users IP addresses are not exposed.

One advantage of self hosted email servers is that anyone inside your country
that can reach the server can communicate directly to each other through that
server. Nothing has to leave the country and can not be censored. Be sure to
encrypt the mail and spool folders.

For trusted circles of friends, especially those responsible for maintaining
servers, ensure they create and share PGP keys. There are how-to's for this as
well. Create code phrases that mean different things, so that you can tell
others if you have been compromised.

------
blablabla123
Obviously there is a lot of P2P technology out there, for instance Freenet,
Bittorrent, Bitcoin and GPG as well as solutions for the lower network layers
like HAM radio based communication. Maybe everybody should start using it also
for normal matters because that's what these technologies have actually been
invented for and not just for politically controversial or actually illegal
things. As a nice side-effect it's kind of fun to dive into new technologies
and new things can be built that are easier to use, like Signal or Telegram

------
ClumsyPilot
Am i right in understanding that people can still oing each-other in the
country, they just cant reach the outside world? Do p2p applications like
torrents work in this environment?

------
kqr
I have no idea how it would work out in practise given the requirement of
physical distribution, but I've always thought of plain pencil and paper among
the most democratic of media. It could work for organising people, but maybe
not as well for casual banter (which – now that I think about it – might be
the more important part.)

~~~
pjc50
Lots of revolutions come with "zines" or pamphlets, it's a very traditional
technique, but it's also very risky when the police are in the streets to
physically intercept your physical messages.

------
jschwartzi
Why not get some RG 6 or RG59 and use it to deploy MoCa networks to wireless
transmitters? Illicit coax would be difficult to distinguish from legit coax
and you could do runs of several hundred feet between buildings. If someone
knows what they’re looking for they’ll be on to you but the equipment is not
very big.

------
nicopace
The LibreRouter.org is an open source software and hardware wireless router
for geek-free mesh community networks, that can be used by the whole
population to deploy any size of telecom infrastructure for their own use, and
that can't be interrupted by anyone in particular.

------
Regenaxer
[https://twitter.com/delta_chat/status/1293456217248079872?s=...](https://twitter.com/delta_chat/status/1293456217248079872?s=20)

------
brightball
Satellite internet options would seem to be the most effective solution long
term...short term though? I have no idea.

------
l332mn
This is possibly going to be another Ukraine - a civil war. Who wants that?
Certainly not the Belarusian people.

~~~
solarkraft
> Certainly not the Belarusian people.

How certain are you?

------
Moonshot787
Loon flight systems create a network in the stratosphere similar to
terrestrial based cell towers. The difference is on the ground, cell towers
are fixed and transmit their signals to moving cell phones. With Loon’s
solution, both the cell towers and the people are moving... More here:
[https://loon.com](https://loon.com)

~~~
gnarea
But Loon requires the authorisation of the local government.

------
Jaruzel
The penny has just dropped with me. This scenario is exactly where Starlink[1]
can shine (no pun intended). Find a way to get uplink routers into the locked
down country and it would be impossible for totalitarian governments to block
internet access completely.

\--

[1] [https://www.starlink.com/](https://www.starlink.com/)

~~~
Jaruzel
What did I say wrong? Care to explain the down-votes?

~~~
est
Because it doesn't work yet? Maybe it's useful in the future in other places.

~~~
Jaruzel
Ah good point. My bad.

~~~
fersarr
Just curious, is there a way governments could somehow block access to those
satellites or force the companies behind them to deny access for people of
their country?

~~~
ClumsyPilot
See above - two-way satellite equipment is illegal in belarus. There will be
no legal way to buy an access point, and owning it risks you jail time. So
most people wont have one.

Maybe some lone dude in the remote are can smuggle it in and keep it hidden,
but if we are talking about mass movements, that terminal won't be mich use

------
notemaker
Maybe scuttlebutt could work, if the gossiping works across mesh wifis.

------
sushshshsh
Satellite internet, ham radio, exfiltration from Belarus

------
beamatronic
Cuba does it with flash drives passed around.

------
jcun4128
I've seen ham radio network AREDN

------
throwaway5355
Indian government shutsdown internet after removal of article 370

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indias-
int...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indias-internet-
shutdown-in-kashmir-is-now-the-longest-ever-in-a-
democracy/2019/12/15/bb0693ea-1dfc-11ea-977a-15a6710ed6da_story.html)

~~~
max_hammer
(1) This is not related to current discussion.

(2) 2G internet was available

(3) 4G service is restored now. [https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/4g-internet-
to-be-allowed-on...](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/4g-internet-to-be-
allowed-on-trial-basis-in-1-district-each-in-jammu-kashmir-valley-from-
august-16-centre-to-supreme-court-2277543)

------
Tepix
Why and how is the internet cut off?

You could send an email/tweet to SpaceX and ask to be part of the Starlink
beta program. They'd have to be granted a license for your country first,
however.

~~~
izik
Why - I suppose that government want to get tactical advantage over protesters
by limiting information flow and making protest coordination more difficult.

How - both deep packet inspection + filtering and primitive solution - making
communication services (mobile and broadband) stop functioning. Such things
happen already in the past in Turkey, Egipt, Iran.

~~~
Tepix
Depending on the type of filtering you could try to tunnel data across UDP
(DNS?) or ICMP packets or configure hosts on both ends to ignore TCP RESET
packets.

------
jmnicolas
My advice to Belarus protesters would be : don't protest. You are the useful
idiots of some foreign powers that want to weaken Russia by making Belarus the
same failed state as Ukraine.

Look at what happened to Ukraine a few years ago and look at the state where
it's at now. Do you really want that for your country ?

