Let's pretend for a moment that, for some reason or another, the west coast gets obliterated. Nuclear strikes, earthquake-tsunami combos, or extra-terrestrial invasion .

After the initial shock of the incident, people will be very chaotic, and also since California and the West Coast contains most of the tech places, wouldn't that take out alot of our communication lines and web servers? Yes, we have web servers all across the country, but how closely coupled are they? How much do they depend on each other?

The internet was designed to be self-rerouting, but is that still true in the present?

Questions:
1) If alot of the DNS servers go down, how would you connect to various websites? Would it actually be worth it to record the static IP addresses of the sites? How can you find out the static IP addresses?

2) If the above scenario was to occur, how would you best prepare if you lived in Texas or someplace physically sheltered from the damage, but effected digitally?

3) If the main internet web hosts go down, how would you stay connected to the rest of the country or world? Would you use the old newsgroup systems, #irc channels, specific TOR destinations, or what? How would you go about preparing now, to stay connected then?

4) If Microsoft's (and Apple's) authentication servers go down, will Windows Vista and Windows 7 copies act as unauthenticated, and lock itself down thinking it's pirated, because it continually can't reach the authentication servers for months on end? Will everyone be forced to move to Ubuntu?

5) If cell phone network magically goes down, due to whatever, how will you reach your loved ones and stay in contact?

[size="1"]PS: I'm holding off from launching the nukes until I get satisfactory answers. =P

I'd think if the west coast got wiped out, you'd have more to worry about than internet and cell phones...

True if it was wiped out through a military attack, like nuclear bombs; if it was wiped out by an earthquake or tsunami, and we are physically somewhere else, we won't be in imminent danger. If food is grown locally (as it happens to be where I'm from), we would be somewhat self-sustaining at least in the short term. Massive numbers of refuges from the west pouring into Nevada and Idaho would be a problem for those states, but not the other states. Communication would be the biggest issue, short-term, I think. If blackouts result, and if confusion and panic gets high enough, rioting and looting would be a serious issue too.

1. Even if all the DNS servers in the world got wiped out, (And there are a LOT of them, designed for redundancy.) they would be rebuilt. Sure, I might be a few days/weeks maybe a month or two without easy internet usage, but things would go on/be rebuilt.

2. Stock up on some good books to read? Besides the general survival stuff like food and water.

3. Get licensed as a HAM radio operator. Amateur radio operators have been staying in contact with each other for right around 100 years now. When the dark ages come again, HAM will be the light in the night.

4. Does anything actually happen when you can't contact the servers?

5. No cell phone? How about I take a walk over and say hi in person? Or send a letter? Seriously. People kept in contact with loved ones for thousands of years. I think we can manage without cell phones.

1. Even if all the DNS servers in the world got wiped out, (And there are a LOT of them, designed for redundancy.) they would be rebuilt. Sure, I might be a few days/weeks maybe a month or two without easy internet usage, but things would go on/be rebuilt.

Talking about short-term. The initial 2-3 months after the event. Ofcourse things will be rebuilt.

4. Does anything actually happen when you can't contact the servers?[/quote]
That was my question. I know that when Windows thinks it is "unauthenticated" some of it's features may stop working; though the extent of what shuts down, I don't know.
When my ISP goes down, Windows is still fine... but I'm curious if there is safeguards in (the more modern versions of) it if it stays unable to connect for a extended period of time.

5. No cell phone? How about I take a walk over and say hi in person? Or send a letter? Seriously. People kept in contact with loved ones for thousands of years. I think we can manage without cell phones.[/quote]
I'm not someone who's tied to my phone, making calls or texting every 20 seconds, so I fully understand where's you're coming from. I'm talking about getting in contact with others who don't live near you. If the west coast grids go down, and you live in Texas or Nevada, and have family in New York, and it takes 2 months for regular communication lines to be re-established, how would reach them?


This kind of thing interests me to think about, sometimes.
HAM radios are interesting, and I'd like to learn to use them sometimes... I didn't know people ran computer networks over HAM radios, though. Very cool.

It would take a major event to kill networked communications across North America. Even if the whole western half of the US slid into the ocean you would still have all the infrastructure running up and down the east coast. So not being able to call your Mom in New England for more than a few days is an unlikely event.

And even if some major event happened, such as one that killed most electronics, there are still letters. Sure, it might take a bit to reach, but very hard to have something that totally destroys all paper and paper like substances in the world, and still have human life surviving.

4) If Microsoft's (and Apple's) authentication servers go down, will Windows Vista and Windows 7 copies act as unauthenticated, and lock itself down thinking it's pirated, because it continually can't reach the authentication servers for months on end? Will everyone be forced to move to Ubuntu?

It would be the dawn of the Linux age, penguins will be the next intelligent live form to roam the earth!!!

there are still letters.

Doesn't Costner live in California? He might be unavailable as well.

How would I be able to express to people which things I "like"? How would I keep up to speed with what Sarah Palin and Courtney Stoddard are thinking? TV? That isn't real time, get serious.

What a nightmare. I don't even want to think about it.

For simplicity I've merged all these scenarios into my zombie plan. It's important to follow the CDC guidelines for situations like this.