Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> I'm not sure I would say the internet is more reliable as both it and cell > phones are the first to jam up and break don in an emergency, and good old > Ham radio is the one most relied on in these situations. In 1991 I had administrative responsibility for ITAR compliance for Digital Equipment Corporation. ITAR limits arms exports, and we needed, at intervals, to certify that we were not exporting arms. As such, I was on the Commerce Department notification list of what constituted "arms". One day, without explanation, the Cisco AGS router showed up on the ITAR arms list. I spent some time looking into the reason why. It seems that in Gulf War I, the initial mission of the US air attacks was to disable Iraqi communication networks, but we discovered that no amount of bombing was able to disable the Iraqi army communication network. Some weeks later, we discovered that they had built a voice-over-IP network using Cisco AGS routers, all retrofitted for 48 volts and buried underground. The standard voice and cellular networks were taken out with the first few cruise missiles, but no amount of bombing disabled the military communication network. Internet is intrinsically more reliable. You just have to keep the millions of useless chatters off it during an emergency. Just like the highway system. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html