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Surprises

from the the-underground-ISPs-of-Lebanon dept

Tue, Nov 14th 2006 10:34pm — Mike Masnick

If you thought Iranian ISPs were being daring in ignoring the ban on high speed broadband connections, check out the situation over in Lebanon. It turns out that there is only one official company providing broadband in Lebanon, and as you might imagine the prices are pretty high and the service is severely limited. So what's happened? It turns out that a collection of "underground" ISPs have started up, providing illegal broadband. It seems that legitimate broadband providers are upset about this (again, not surprising), though the reasons why are amusing. You see, those underground ISPs are "able to offer Internet access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no dial-up and no cap on downloads." 24 hours a day?!? What are they thinking? In the meantime, anyone think that US ISP Speakeasy should license out their name to one of these underground providers? Somehow it seems fitting...

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27 Comments

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SimplyGimp, 14 Nov 2006 @ 11:57pm

Well now
I guess now I have a reason not to move to Lebanon. Thanks Techdirt!
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novernetsbandit, 14 Nov 2006 @ 11:57pm

underground internet!!!
I think its a great thing that someone or some companies are doing this for the people over there its hard to beleave that it has to be done but i think the people using it should be applouded maybe if enough people do so the currupt government will look at opening it back up!!
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n3o, 15 Nov 2006 @ 1:41am

i love it!
i'm very pleased that these people are finally getting a glimpse of something besides the ass end of a propaganda machine. if our government really wants to help end terrorism they might want to lend these ISP's a hand in their little underground web. if we can help educate more people and undo some of the brainwashing there will be that many less people strapping up a bomb vest or picking up an AK-47.
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David., 15 Nov 2006 @ 2:14am

I agree completely, n3o.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2006 @ 2:29am

Huh?~
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Exiled From the mainstream, 15 Nov 2006 @ 4:17am

Now we got NetEasys!
They see a opportunity for cash and go for it. Sometimes it moves in favor a good thing obviously. and I'm all for educating the folks out there in the middle-eastish area like this could, less suicide nutjobs I say!
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GetOfYourHighHorse, 15 Nov 2006 @ 4:37am

Somehow I think that having half their country destroyed by Israel with U.S supplied weapons, and the USG calling the bloodshed and destruction "birth pangs", probably has more to do with the hatred and violence than the inability to surf high speed porn.
Oh and lets not forget the fifty plus years of the U.S condoning the occupation of 3.5 million people either. These are the Great American values you want them to see right.
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Holy*WhatAnIdiot, 15 Nov 2006 @ 5:06am

Re: GetOfYourHighHorse
First of all (or should I say Ali) it's Get OFF your high horse. It pays to go back and re-read your rant. And on that note, look at what you've said. Where do get this crap information? The US doesn't supply all of Israel's weapons. Some, yes, but mostly defensive. When you have terrorists firing missiles at you, you fight back. Why don't you work toward changing the Palestinian society that teaches nothing but hate? Looks like you're a product of that schooling.
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Holy*WhatAnIdiot, 15 Nov 2006 @ 5:06am

Re: GetOfYourHighHorse
First of all (or should I say Ali) it's Get OFF your high horse. It pays to go back and re-read your rant. And on that note, look at what you've said. Where do get this crap information? The US doesn't supply all of Israel's weapons. Some, yes, but mostly defensive. When you have terrorists firing missiles at you, you fight back. Why don't you work toward changing the Palestinian society that teaches nothing but hate? Looks like you're a product of that schooling.
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Holy*WhatAnIdiot, 15 Nov 2006 @ 5:06am

Re: GetOfYourHighHorse
First of all (or should I say Ali) it's Get OFF your high horse. It pays to go back and re-read your rant. And on that note, look at what you've said. Where do get this crap information? The US doesn't supply all of Israel's weapons. Some, yes, but mostly defensive. When you have terrorists firing missiles at you, you fight back. Why don't you work toward changing the Palestinian society that teaches nothing but hate? Looks like you're a product of that schooling.
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Mike, 15 Nov 2006 @ 5:31am

Re: Re: GetOfYourHighHorse
If they have access to porn I think it would cool things down a bit, who has time to hate Jews when you’re beating off?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2006 @ 5:48am

Re: Re: GetOfYourHighHorse
First of all, you need only post your reply once .... It pays to be patient when responding to someone else's opinion.
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Rational Thought, 15 Nov 2006 @ 6:00am

#10 Mike
As for the high speed internet, well that story has nothing to do with politics, only capitalist enterprise, for which I laud the underground ISPs. However to your rant I say this: US made and supplied Apache helicopters, cluster bombs, sulphur munitions and missiles are not defensive weapons by any stretch of the imagination. As for Palestinian society teaching hate, maybe you need to research history before forming opinions. Consider this: Israel committed atrocities against the indiginous Palestinians when it was carved out of the existing land. Historical records corroborated by UN and Red Cross archives paint a picture of military practices that were, at best, questionable under existing principles governing the laws of war. Just before his assassination by Jewish extremists in September 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN Mediator for Palestine, reported large-scale pillaging and plundering, and instances of destruction of villages without apparent military necessity. Even so, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe writes that the existence of a master plan to expel Palestinians is irrelevant: what mattered was the formulation of an ideological community, in which every member, whether a newcomer or a veteran, knows only too well that they have to contribute to recognized formula: the only way to fulfill the dream of Zionism is to empty the land of its indigenous population. Add to this the illegal occupation of Palestinian land after the 1967 war and you only start to get a picture of why there is so much animosity in that region.
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Rational Thought, 15 Nov 2006 @ 6:03am

My post
Sorry the subject should have read: "#10 Holy*WhatAnIdiot" :)
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SentauR, 15 Nov 2006 @ 6:23am

High Speed Overseas
So what is the name of the only company providing broadband? "Hezzbolah High Speed"
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2006 @ 7:23am

Re:
"...probably has more to do with the hatred and violence than the inability to surf high speed porn. ..."

Never underestimate the power....

....

...of Porn.
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Disgusted, 15 Nov 2006 @ 7:43am

Interesting
The other day I was watching a 2 hr documentary on the discovery Science channel the title was the new front of Al-Qaeda. And to make a long story short. The scumbags that reside in Afghanistan/Iraq. And before all you liberals or what have you start ranting about me calling them Scumbags. I'm talking about the Militia/Is urgency. The net is their biggest weapon. Uploading Beheading, suicide bombings etc... is their biggest recruitment tool. One of them admitted it... Also it's their biggest fundraiser for their objective... And best form of communication around the world for their international cells. So, I for one think that whatever company is slipping Broadband over there is helping terrorism just to make a money...
Ever f^cking stop and think that maybe their government is not allowing Broadband for a reason. But I guess it's just like Corporate America to not thing about anything else except Revenue... Know what I think. When the service that recruits more terrorists gets hit by them they might stop and think did we help them get so big? Idiots.
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Joe, 15 Nov 2006 @ 8:21am

Re: #10 Mike
oh the poor terrorists......it's tit for tat

the only real solution is to "move on people" - but that will never happen - it's too much fun to hate I guess

turn the whole crap-hole into a sheet of glass and forget about it
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Disgusted, 15 Nov 2006 @ 8:57am

I agree
Nuke the whole place and turn all of that sand into glass...Good call..

On another note what do you think would go through all their minds if one day they woke up and to their surprise they see every military troop packing up an leaving?

What I would think is, let's get the hell outta here cause we're all doomed. At lease I would know that this place is about to become a fallout zone...
I actually find it funny if you sit back for a minute and picture that scene from an Iraqis point of view.
Wake up come out of your hut and what do you see about 150,000 troops moving down the street and getting on jets and leaving a missive out movement. I wonder if the feeling of extreme diarrhea would fall in? Or the other feeling of your heart dropping to your stomach...
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Chronno S. Trigger, 15 Nov 2006 @ 10:56am

Re: Interesting
Shure lets fallow your logic for a sec.

We ban the Internet because terrorists are using it to communicate.

two weeks latter we ban cell phones because now that's how there communicating

two weeks after that we ban regular phones because that's how they communicate.

two weeks latter we ban money because its buying there weapons.

See where I'm going with this? We cannot ban a useful and beneficial technology because a few people use it to do bad things. Same reason we don't ban cars.
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Disgusted, 15 Nov 2006 @ 12:00pm

Re: Re: Interesting
Yeah, but we can certainly limit it till the bad apples are gone...
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2006 @ 1:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Interesting
That generally doesn't work. Remember Prohibition in the 1920s?
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Donald Duck, 16 Nov 2006 @ 12:52am

You Haven't Heard Dial Up is a Bitch in Lebanon
You didn't know that *LOB* Lebanon Online went up in Smoke.....? Where you been posting in techdirt?

Well lets see they have a whole freaking *secret* army in southern Lebanon they were fighting the Israeli Army several months ago with a lot of rockets one would assume from Syria & Iran or both and there is all kinds of broadband systems in those countries just look up broadband on Wikipedia.

I would also assume that there is some really smart college educated people there that know how to set up a HOT SPOT no pun intended inside Lebanon is running this system couldn't be that freaking hard to do, with all these usb stick portable programs floating on the web.

I mean a Satellite Phone, GMS cell phones and laptops with high speed cards, pda's, pocket computers all can be modems could get online there if the right system was hooked up.

Little bit of Tor for private conversations should be right up the alley for these Lebanese Confederates. I'm sure they are so freaking worried about a stint in prison they are rubbing their worry beads out.

There is one 'anonymous' poster in techdirt that has a severe porn problem. He/She needs to join Porn Anonymous blog site? Seems like he/she just can't stop talking about that issue and needs to chill out and if you READ the story they probably couldn't see a porn pic in like two day's because they aren't getting much band width.

I seriously doubt very much that the dudes in the trenches in southern Lebanon or any one else in that area is spending $200 bucks a month to look at some stupid pictures of some web ho's while their friends since child hood are being blown apart.

By the way they probably know it's full of Israeli and American Trojans, Viruses so they wouldn't risk it? Come to think of it, they are probably getting Broad band from some unscrupulous shady Israel company????

The reasons that they are going on line is they can't stop going to eBay? You didn't know that BeirutBay auctions off rockets, booby traps IED tools.

Noooo I'm sure it's more in the line of WHAT IS the ISRAELIS doing out there? Collecting news of troop movements and googling satellite maps, reading about world wide election results, making party plans now day's I'm sure LOL they have a big buddy list.

Their information flow has to be very limited in a bombed out country side and of course they probably have loved ones around the whole world and yes I'm sure who ever bought the rockets wouldn't mind having internet service on either.

Could you imagine if you were at a secret terrorist meeting in Jordan and they ask you what type of internet service you have in Lebanon? Then you tell them that you don't have one?

That would be retarded with all the tech we have these day's you couldn't be a serious terrorist group if you wasn't online?

Ohh that one post that portrays the internet as the wonder tool for terrorist. Are saying that because we have criminals in our mist we shouldn't have these technologies? So lets say back in 1920's we shouldn't have the telephones because you know it would be used criminals?

What a nincompoop, you want use to use STAMPS & SNAIL MAIL because there might be a terrorist online RIGHT NOW? LOL you simpleton.
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Disgusted, 16 Nov 2006 @ 1:07pm

Re: You Haven't Heard Dial Up is a Bitch in Lebano
Hey Donald Duck, Ever been to Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan? Talk after you have been there... I have ...
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Donald Duck, 16 Nov 2006 @ 6:24pm

Re : Disgusted
Whoopee Dooo You get frequent flier miles? WHAT IS YOUR POINT? I mean people in American prisons still get stoned I doubt that a government is going to end a group of smart people from being online.

No I never been to Lebanon, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan nor would I want to be and how many f**ing people have??? I don't recall hearing about secret tourist attractions nobody knows about in those areas.

I've never been to a trailer park in Kentucky either so that means I'm not allowed to post about it techdirt???

Did you read that post? It's about faster internet speeds. I found this story kind of interesting because I thought the Israelis bombed out all power plants and I would imagine they don't have any cables on telephone poles. Communications is pretty easy these day's and the internet is just 'ONE AVENUE' of communications.

They still could have Ham Radios, regular AM/FM radios, CB radios and you can go online purchase a FM broadcaster from radio shack and broadcast orders but why use World War II technology against an Israeli army?

It isn't like that can't hear ya on a radio. Or year 2006 why would any one think that they "Aren't smart enough to use something more modern"?

In fact these men could use a "HP memory spot" about as big as a corner of a stamp. You can place that on ANY THING just use your imagine. It would hold video, maps, documents, instructions, pic's of enemies and it uploads 1,000 times faster then a RFID stick on.

It would almost be like the video image coming out of R2D2 in star wars right on your cell phone or Sansa and it could be also a lot more private then using the internet.

To sit here and think that they don't know about this stuff is just stupid, I read a book written by a Lebanese man who went to Oxford.

You can stick it to a post card or it could be hidden under a stamp or a sticker. Just imagine what they could do with that? Or Americans or Israelis. Stealing Broadband or having that service is just another avenue for them to communicate and I seriously doubt that all internet activity is going to end just because the government of Lebanon and western people wants it to end?

Cable stealing is nothing new, I'm sure some folks in Kentucky have stolen some before? I mean atomic clocks works around the world and that same technology is in laptop computers now.

There probably is no ending the technology you just have to deal with it the best way you can. These websites that you posted about that gets them money and what ever else you know is watched like a hawk and every thing on that computer is monitored by echelon. So lets not sweat the small stuff.
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slim e, 26 Mar 2007 @ 8:18am

any one know how to hack 3g broadband
my (gsm) cell phone company has just upgraded thier services to 3g mobile broad band ,problem is its very expensive does anyone know if it is possible to hack thier system and enable free broadband on my phone
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slim e, 26 Mar 2007 @ 8:27am

Re: underground internet!!!
know any way to get broad band for free via hacking?
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