[outages] Fwd: [Outages-discussion] National internet outage in Myanmar enters second week

[Scott Howard]

Internet in Burma/Myanmar is very strictly controlled by the "government"
(ie, the military junta who claims to be the government). From memory, all
access runs via a single connection, which then feeds through a "firewall"
which significantly restricts what can be accessed.

However as you'd expect, many people - including most Internet cafes
throughout the country - have worked out ways around this firewall.  When I
was there (~2.5 years ago) this generally consisted of using software like
"Your-Freedom" (http://www.your-freedom.net/) which tunnel the traffic to
somewhere else in the world - normally Europe.

In less than a week the country will hold the first national elections in
around 20 years.  It's no secret that these elections will be a farce, and
the "government" is seriously limiting (if not completely blocking) all
foreign media access to the country during the election.

So putting 2 and 2 together, my guess is that any Internet problems in Burma
at the moment are completely deliberate on the part of the "government" in
an effort to limit communication outside of the country.  If that's the
case, you can expect it to stay down for at least the next ~ 2 weeks, and
possibly longer.

(For those that are wondering, name change from "Burma" to "Myanmar" was
made by the junta many years ago.  As the governments of many countries
around the world do not consider the junta to be the official government of
the country, they do not recognize the change, and thus officially still use
the old name of Burma. Other countries (including the US) do recognize the
junta as the government of the country, and thus use the new name of Myanmar
- or more correctly the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar")

  Scott.


On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 8:26 AM, virendra rode <virendra.rode at outages.org>wrote:

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [Outages-discussion] National internet outage in Myanmar enters
>      second week
> Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 08:26:40 -0500
> From: Frank Bulk <frnkblk at iname.com>
> Reply-To: frnkblk at iname.com
> Organization: iName.com
> To: <outages-discussion at outages.org>
>
>
> http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world/national-internet-outage-in-myanma
> r-enters-second-week_100452986.html
>
> Does anyone else have more information on this?  How many international
> POPs
> are in that country?
>
> Frank
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Outages mailing list
> Outages at outages.org
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/outages
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/outages/attachments/20101101/f8f520bd/attachment.htm>