Connectivity status for Egypt

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

Around 2236 UCT, we lost all Internet connectivity with our contacts in
Egypt, and I'm hearing reports of (in declining order of confirmability):

1) Internet connectivity loss on major (broadband) ISPs
2) No SMS
4) Intermittent connectivity with smaller (dialup?) ISPs
5) No mobile service in major cities -- Cairo, Alexandria

The working assumption here is that the Egyptian government has made the
decision to shut down all external, and perhaps internal electronic
communication as a reaction to the ongoing protests in that country.

If anyone can provide more details as to what they're seeing, the extent,
plus times and dates, it would be very useful. In moments like this there
are often many unconfirmed rumors: I'm seeking concrete reliable
confirmation which I can pass onto the press and those working to bring some
communications back up (if you have a ham radio license, there is some very
early work to provide emergency connectivity. Info at:
http://pastebin.com/fHHBqZ7Q )

Thank you,

2

I have a server with CityNet Host in Cairo. The server and ISP are completely offline

3

Some interesting financial news... Unsure if this is related the outages,
but interesting.....

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/egypt-market-slumps-as-mideast-turmoil-spreads-2011-01-27

EGYPT: Stock market stumbles amid nationwide
turbulence<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-stock-market-stumbles-amidst-nationwide-turbulence.html>
<http://www.marketwatch.com/story/egypt-market-slumps-as-mideast-turmoil-spreads-2011-01-27>
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-stock-market-stumbles-amidst-nationwide-turbulence.html
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-stock-market-stumbles-amidst-nationwide-turbulence.html>

4

I'd suspect it's got a lot more to do with the open rioting on the streets, government shooting people, the numbers involved in protests, what happened in Tunisia next door etc. etc. Loss of Internet connectivity is relatively minor in comparison.
Any investor with even half a brain is going to twig that's just not a good market to have money in right now.

5

Around 2236 UCT, we lost all Internet connectivity with our contacts in
Egypt, and I'm hearing reports of (in declining order of confirmability):

1) Internet connectivity loss on major (broadband) ISPs
2) No SMS
4) Intermittent connectivity with smaller (dialup?) ISPs
5) No mobile service in major cities -- Cairo, Alexandria

The working assumption here is that the Egyptian government has made the
decision to shut down all external, and perhaps internal electronic
communication as a reaction to the ongoing protests in that country.

If anyone can provide more details as to what they're seeing, the extent,
plus times and dates, it would be very useful. In moments like this there
are often many unconfirmed rumors: I'm seeking concrete reliable
confirmation which I can pass onto the press and those working to bring some
communications back up (if you have a ham radio license, there is some very
early work to provide emergency connectivity. Info at:
telecomix hamradio - Pastebin.com )

On twitter (follow the #jan25 and #jan28 hash tags), there are many reports of loss of internet connectivity in
Egypt. Apparently cell phones and land lines are still working.

Of course, the assumption there is that this is connected to the large protests expected tomorrow in Egypt.

Regards
Marshall

6

The U.S Embassy in Cairo website is also unreachable, as well as the main
Egyptian Governmental portal:

%ping www.egypt.gov.eg

Pinging www.egypt.gov.eg [81.21.104.81] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 81.21.104.81:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

%tracert cairo.usembassy.gov

Tracing route to cairo.usembassy.gov [62.140.73.207] over a maximum of 30
hops:

  1 4 ms 2 ms 1 ms 62.140.73.207

[snip]

  7 37 ms 27 ms 28 ms ix-1-1-0-0.tcore1.LVW-LosAngeles.as6453.net
[216.6.12.25]
  8 247 ms 204 ms 205 ms if-2-2.tcore2.LVW-LosAngeles.as6453.net
[66.110.59.2]
  9 226 ms 199 ms 204 ms if-8-1508.tcore2.AEQ-Ashburn.as6453.net
[64.86.252.74]
10 289 ms 301 ms 219 ms if-2-2.tcore1.AEQ-Ashburn.as6453.net
[216.6.87.2]
11 190 ms 252 ms 204 ms if-6-871.tcore1.PVU-Paris.as6453.net
[216.6.51.58]
12 197 ms 204 ms 203 ms if-11-1-0-1411.core1.PV1-Paris.as6453.net
[80.231.153.13]
13 229 ms 229 ms 236 ms ix-9-0-0.core1.PV1-Paris.as6453.net
[195.219.215.38]
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * ^C

%ping cairo.usembassy.gov

Pinging cairo.usembassy.gov [62.140.73.207] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 62.140.73.207:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

% Information related to '62.140.73.0 - 62.140.73.255'

inetnum: 62.140.73.0 - 62.140.73.255
netname: EG-NMC
descr: AW-NMC
descr: For any abuse complain contact abuse@nile-online.com
country: EG
admin-c: IM217-AFRINIC
tech-c: IA119-AFRINIC
tech-c: IM217-AFRINIC
tech-c: OM2093-AFRINIC
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: O-MAHMOUD
remarks: data has been transferred from RIPE Whois Database 20050221
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
parent: 62.140.64.0 - 62.140.127.255

role: IP Address Manager
address: top of
address: pyramid
address: sand
address: sahara
phone: +202 37611153
phone: +202 37611123
fax-no: +202 37607656
e-mail: ipadmin@nile-online.com
e-mail: ashwadfy@nile-online.com
e-mail: mhalim@nile-online.com
admin-c: MS22-Afrinic
admin-c: MMK1-AFRINIC
tech-c: AS38-Afrinic
nic-hdl: IM217-AFRINIC
source: AFRINIC # Filtered

role: IP Address Admin
address: 15 Mohamed Hafez St.,
address: Mohandessin
address: Giza
address: Egypt
phone: +202 37611153
phone: +202 37611123
fax-no: +202 37607656
e-mail: ipadmin@nile-online.com
e-mail: ashwadfy@nile-online.com
e-mail: mhalim@nile-online.com
admin-c: MS22-Afrinic
tech-c: AS38-Afrinic
nic-hdl: IA119-AFRINIC
remarks: data has been transferred from RIPE Whois Database 20050221
source: AFRINIC # Filtered

person: Omar Mahmoud
nic-hdl: OM2093-AFRINIC
address: 15 Mohamed Hafez St.,
address: Mohandessin
address: Giza
address: Egypt
address: Cairo
address: Egypt
e-mail: mispeng-core@etisalatdata.net
phone: +202 7606677
fax-no: +202 7607656
remarks: For any abuse complain contact abuse@nile-online.com
remarks: data has been transferred from RIPE Whois Database 20050221
mnt-by: O-MAHMOUD
source: AFRINIC # Filtered

- - ferg

7

Hi,

Looking at the BGP announcements it seems that the problem started at around 22:28 UTC.

Most of the Autonomous systems operating in Egypt are currently not announcing any or at least significantly less prefixes.
The one exception seems to be AS20928 (Noor Data Networks).

For more details also see: http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450

Cheers,
  Andree

.-- My secret spy satellite informs me that at 11-01-27 3:47 PM Danny O'Brien wrote:

8

BGPmon has a quick analysis on the reachability of prefixes usually
announced by the top 10 operators from Egypt:

http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450

-Lorand Jakab

9

I suggest that you confine your information to the press on what you know rather than speculation on the cause.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice"

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hanlon's_razor

10

I think the earlier references to the BGPmon blog article is sufficient to
illustrate a coordinated effort in "blacking out" connectivity - again:

http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450

- - ferg

11

That is indeed one of the reasons why I'm seeking corroboration of the
pattern of behaviour; at least to isolate and eliminate any alternative
explanations. It would certainly be of operational interest (and certainly
not unknown in the annals of historical "stupidity") if, say, a single
fiber-cut or network upgrade was disrupting all of these different forms of
communication simultaneously. On the other hand, there's only a finite
number of imaginary backhoes you can conjure up before other explanations
begin to trump Hanlon's razor.

Right now, I think that http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450 explains (or at least
illustrates) why we were getting reports of widespread but not universal
Internet interruption. See also
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml .

I don't have a good explanation for the SMS problems, but lots of
independent reports; I've yet to have any real confirmation of no mobile
service, and lots of denials, so right now I'm going to assume that's
untrue.

If anyone can get explanations from their peers in the region, please pass
them on (however incomplete or informal -- mail me directly if you'd rather
not contribute to rumors or non-operational NANOG discussions).

It's late at night in Egypt, and the biggest protests are planned for
tomorrow. A great deal of life-critical systems will be under a great deal
of stress during that time, and the interruptions in network connectivity
would be extremely worrying.

Thanks for checking this out,

d.

12

And to add to this thread, an graph of Egyptian Internet traffic across a large number of geographically / topologically diverse providers yesterday (Jan 27):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5395027368_7d97b74c0b_b.jpg

Traffic drops to a handful of megabits following the withdrawal of most Egyptian ISP BGP routes.

- Craig

13

I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind on the fact that the service is being interrupted somehow. The question is why.

Being an old fart, I tend to dig up stories that explain my point.

Almost two years ago, I woke up one morning and got on my trusty computer to read email, etc. I couldn't reach the Internet. My microwave to my ISP was up but their uplinks were either down or just went a few hops and died. I tried to dial in but that just got a fast busy signal. Calls to the ISP help desks involved via my land line also got fast busy or "your call could not be completed". Now getting a bit worried, I dug out my cellphone and had no bars. Usually I got all of them here.

I immediately thought of 9/11 and was speculating that some terrorist attack had struck. I quickly went to the family room and powered up the satellite TV. Everything seemed normal. No attacks.

You probably know the rest. 30 miles away in San Jose, someone went down a manhole and severed some fiber cables. It turns out that all the services involved (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Cogent, etc) all were in that manhole. Almost 200,000 people had no communications for most of the day.

Moral of the story: Separate facts from assumptions and guesses. I did some Google searches and that region has had large scale disruptions in the past. Several cables follow the same path to the Suez canal and were hit.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/2008_submarine_cable_disruption

14

And to add to this thread, an graph of Egyptian Internet traffic
across a large number of geographically / topologically diverse
providers yesterday (Jan 27):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5395027368_7d97b74c0b_b.jpg

Traffic drops to a handful of megabits following the withdrawal of
most Egyptian ISP BGP routes.

- Craig

I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind on the fact that the
service is being interrupted somehow. The question is why.

The BBC doesn't seem to have too much trouble coming to a conclusion as
to why.

internal communications are disrupted as are external commucations.

from renesys

http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml

At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually
simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the
Internet's global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP
routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the
world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt's service
providers.

<snip>

Moral of the story: Separate facts from assumptions and guesses. I did
some Google searches and that region has had large scale disruptions in
the past. Several cables follow the same path to the Suez canal and
were hit.

my links through the region are all fine, but they don't jump off the
cable in egypt just pass through.

15

I guess this begs the question of whether or not we're seeing actual
layer1 going down or just the effects of mass BGP withdrawals. Are we
seeing lights out on fibre links or just peering sessions going down?
Both could still point to a coordinated intentional blackout by the
Egyptian gov't though.

16

To my knowledge, no one has reported any cable problems in Norther Africa
- -- and news of those problems generally travels very fast. :slight_smile:

Also, if there *was* a cable problem on one of the paths through the
vicinity, it affect more than just Egypt:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Cable_map18.svg

I don't think it takes a leap of imagination to understand what has
happened here.

- - ferg

17

Looks like you can still make phone calls into Egypt. So it's not totally lights out...

Carlos Alcantar
Race Communications / Race Team Member
101 Haskins Way, So. San Francisco, CA. 94080
Phone: +1 415 376 3314 Fax: +1 650 246 8901 / carlos *at* race.com / www.race.com

18

Hi,

We did some analysis of the situation in Egypt using the RIPEstat toolbox (please note, this is a prototype and we're not sure how it will handle a big load):

http://labs.ripe.net/Members/akvadrako/live_eqyptian_internet_incident_analysis

Mirjam Kuehne
RIPE NCC

Carlos Alcantar wrote:

19

Mobile is apparently being shut down now :

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/press.html

Statement - Vodafone Egypt
All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course .

20

Al Arabiya is reporting (via twitter) that the Internet has been shut of in Syria (where I have not heard of reports of protests).

I have no confirmation of this as yet.

Regards
Marshall