So if we have communications black out is there anyone to get back up on the computer to see what is actually going on? I am trying to figure out what this cloudflare is and if that will allow me access. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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You don't have to get cloudflare - the provider of the website uses cloudflare for protection (which, I would argue, is not a good idea given Cloudflare's past, but that's just an opinion).
The Internet could generally be taken down based on what Snowden leaked regarding NSA capture points. You stop those points, you stop most traffic in the US. But, we'll see.
Safest thing is just to assume that if something goes dark, just be ready. Have local copies of things are that important. Who knows what's going to happen...
It depends on the extent of the comms blackout.
As I would understand it, that would include the Internet, which would mean "no, you can't get on the computer to see what's going on".
Cloudflare is a service company that tries to protect clients from attacks that take down their site (DDOS). It's not really related. In theory, in a comms blackout, you just won't be able to reach anything via phone, computer, etc that's on the Internet - and arguably, if you have cable TV, satellite, or similar, it will not come up.
So even if I got cloudflare, it still wouldn't work? Someone was saying to have Signal and Telegram up. Not sure that to be true though.
You don’t “get” cloudflare. Cloudflare is used by those with servers on the Internet providing content (web pages and such). Cloudflare isn’t purchased by end users. Cloudflare is a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Why a CDN? A single server or even a group of servers located at one site (data center) exposed directly to the Internet can be taken down by sending them enough garbage traffic that legitimate traffic can’t get to the servers for them to respond to user browsers.
A CDN provides a new “front door” to the server(s). It is done as a proxy. The real servers are hidden behind the Cloudflare proxy servers. When your browser talks to the “web site” it is actually talking to a Cloudflare proxy server and the Cloudflare proxy server is talking to the real server(s).
Now, the good part. Using some Internet routing trickery, the web site is made to show up at multiple locations around the world, depending on how close the browser is; multiple “front doors”. Additionally, Cloudflare has massive Internet circuits, Denial of Service protection, and works with ISPs to drop attack traffic BEFORE it loads of the Internet circuits to the Cloudflare proxy servers.
Basically, if you want to talk to “The Boss”, you gotta go through “Tiny”. Nobody talks directly to “The Boss”.
Yeah, I don't know. I saw this but didn't reply due to uncertainty.
I don't see they can take down the entire internet unless Verizon and a metric shit ton of ISPs are also involved.
They can certainly block/hack sites, power outages are another way, or cell towers. I'm sure a good percentage of people these days are on mobile data.
I'm not mega techy, but I know in general the internet has a fair amount of redundancy in its infrastructure, both physical and digital.