Losing the 'net

[Vortex2]

A long term outage covering a large part of a developed nation would probably kill millions.
No internet=no food, apart from what you have already stocked, can grow, or hunt, or barter for within walking distance.
No internet=no oil, after emergency stockpiles have been used.
No internet=no money, apart from cash transactions within walking distance.
No internet=no grid electricity.
No internet=no natural gas supply, no urban water supply.
No internet=no modern medical treatment.

Exactly.

My wife and I have decided to regard the Web etc as a 'gift' or 'loan' ... which will go away within the next decade or so.

It could be wise to stick an old laptop in a metal box (for protection against EMP) and also fill a box with memory sticks and CDs containing old Encarta dictionaries etc.

A stack of medical and surgical videos etc would also be useful.

Also it is possible to obtain full copies of all of Wikipedia - could be worth ordering/making one of these as a reference library.

[ReserveGrowthRulz]

A long term outage covering a large part of a developed nation would probably kill millions.
No internet=no food, apart from what you have already stocked, can grow, or hunt, or barter for within walking distance.
No internet=no oil, after emergency stockpiles have been used.
No internet=no money, apart from cash transactions within walking distance.
No internet=no grid electricity.
No internet=no natural gas supply, no urban water supply.
No internet=no modern medical treatment.

Exactly.

Except we had all of those things without the net. Some of us even remember it! Heaven forbid, even participated in it!

I produced and sold oil without the net!! OMG! Same with natural gas. OMG!!

Remember stamps and twisted pair telephone cables? Can you BELIEVE that entire WARS were run with such things? I seem to recall that without the net, I had electricity!

Come on guys, how about a little seriousness on this topic. No way, with the heavily skewed population that exists within the remnants of the peak oil club, that you folks didn't live in this same world!

Also it is possible to obtain full copies of all of Wikipedia - could be worth ordering/making one of these as a reference library.

Because....the world did away with all the ACTUAL libraries? And the mutant zombie bikers will be stopping regular folks from accessing them?

[Little John]

Anyone who wants to know anything about anything from how to raise rabbits to how to dig a well to how to produce your own biogas to how to make your own pottery - and a million other things - should download cd3wd from this site.

https://canadianpreppersnetwork.com/cd3wda/

CD3WD is a massive collection of UN 3rd world development documents and tutorials compiled from the UN's archives by a man who used to work for them - Alex Weir - I got a copy of the CDs sent to me by Alex back in the early noughties and still have them

Alex sadly died back in the mid noughties and his site was taken over and sold off. But, a copy of his stuff is on the site I have linked to

Don't click on the "individual files" links cos they don't work. But, do click on the "zip files" links.

You'll need to start the downloads just before bed cos they will take all night.

All six zip files come to around 22 gigs in total. Like I said, the number of documents contained in them is truly massive. Decades worth of stuff.

[BritDownUnder]

Anyone who wants to know anything about anything from how to raise rabbits to how to dig a well to how to produce your own biogas to how to make your own pottery - and a million other things - should download cd3wd from this site.

https://canadianpreppersnetwork.com/cd3wda/

CD3WD is a massive collection of UN 3rd world development documents and tutorials compiled from the UN's archives by a man who used to work for them - Alex Weir - I got a copy of the CDs sent to me by Alex back in the early noughties and still have them

Alex sadly died back in the mid noughties and his site was taken over and sold off. But, a copy of his stuff is on the site I have linked to

Don't click on the "individual files" links cos they don't work. But, do click on the "zip files" links.

You'll need to start the downloads just before bed cos they will take all night.

All six zip files come to around 22 gigs in total. Like I said, the number of documents contained in them is truly massive. Decades worth of stuff.

Thank you for the link and I have just completed downloading them. Everything from preventing beef tapeworms to grey water facts to wind power.

As you say this will keep me informed until my retirement and well into it.

[adam2]

The recent volcanic eruption in Tonga has exposed vulnerabilities.
For some days the only reliable source of news was to fly over the island to observe and take photographs.

All international telephone and internet traffic was routed via a single submarine cable, severed by the eruption. The only alternatives were satellite phones or amateur radio equipment.

Satellite phones are hugely expensive to purchase and very expensive to use. Only a handful were available, mainly those owned by foreign embassies.

Amateur radio equipment with suitable range was in very limited supply, as was electricity to power it. Written messages taken by rowing boat to a US warship for onward transmission by satellite featured at one point.

The cable will be repaired or replaced, but this takes some time.

[BritDownUnder]

I would suspect the first thing the Russians would do in the event of hostilities is cut the transatlantic communications cables, assuming they know where they are. You would hope that the militaries at least would have alternatives but you never know.

Some level of redundancy will be present in the form of satellites, presumably in the form of geostationary ones and also the fast expanding Starlink constellation that is being deployed now. That must be why China is complaining so bitterly about it.

Getting some form of amateur radio equipment has been on my to do list but it is not too near the top.

[kenneal - lagger]

I would suspect the first thing the Russians would do in the event of hostilities is cut the transatlantic communications cables, assuming they know where they are.

There is a TV program running at the moment following life aboard HMS Northumberland. She was recently deployed, just before Christmas, to chase a Russian submarine which was "hanging around" the undersea data cables in the Denmark Strait north of Scotland. When she got close to the sub it altered course suddenly and struck the ship's towed sonar array breaking it. The ship had to come back to port to have the array swapped out. The ships captain was of the impression that the course change was a deliberate act by the Russian to disable the hunting ship.

So, yes, the Russians do know where the cables are and the First Sea Lord has stated in a press briefing recently that he thinks that they may already have charges laid to destroy the cables as there has been significant Russian activity around the cables for some years and that any such damaged would be treated as an act of war.

They might now blow one of the cables up and blame it on volcanic activity.

[BritDownUnder]

Given that submarines are themselves vulnerable to getting their propellers and control hydroplanes snagged on things under the water it might be a good idea to have a 'mesh' of debris/netting/hawsers/floats/sunken shipping containers and even the odd 'undiscovered' WW2 mine in the vicinity of submarine cables to deter such 'hanging around'.

[PS_RalphW]

Such detritus would also make safe repair of a broken cable more hazardous, especially near sections that may need maintenance, for example signal amplification repeaters.

[clv101]

I would suspect the first thing the Russians would do in the event of hostilities is cut the transatlantic communications cables, assuming they know where they are.

There is a TV program running at the moment following life aboard HMS Northumberland.

There have been a lot of submarines TV recently.

The BBC drama, Vigil. Channel five had a series on one of the Vanguard (Trident) boats and there was another series on an old attack sub, following its final patrol.

Pro-military propaganda or simply making programmes enough folk are interested in?

[kenneal - lagger]

Northumberland is a frigate.

[adam2]

I would suspect the first thing the Russians would do in the event of hostilities is cut the transatlantic communications cables, assuming they know where they are. You would hope that the militaries at least would have alternatives but you never know.

Some level of redundancy will be present in the form of satellites, presumably in the form of geostationary ones and also the fast expanding Starlink constellation that is being deployed now. That must be why China is complaining so bitterly about it.

Getting some form of amateur radio equipment has been on my to do list but it is not too near the top.

Not of course that there is any risk of hostilities with Russia !

[kenneal - lagger]

They would have to knock off a few satellites as well if they were thinking of disputing military communications. They might think of cutting the cables in retaliation if there was a big financial hit on them with the proposed sanctions.

[adam2]

A EMP attack would kill the satellites and the cables.

[kenneal - lagger]

If a couple of transatlantic cables "broke" suddenly Putin could deny all knowledge and possibly get away without a further sanctions, assuming he is hit with everything the rest of the world can muster over Ukraine. An EMP attack would not be deniable and would probably result in outright war. I doubt that even a psychopath like Putin would want an outright war which he would stand no chance of winning due to the overwhelming advantage in production capacity of the US over Russia.