When Egypt cut the Internet off for the vast majority of its citizens, the Egyptian government did a frighteningly good job of turning off the Internet. But, despite their efforts, in the days that have followed, Egyptians are reaching out to each other and the world with a mix of old-fashioned dial-up modems and satellite Internet.

Make no mistake about it, the Egyptian government did what they intended to do: They’ve cut their people from using the modern broadband Internet. Using cobbled together technology, however, Egyptian Internet users has continued on.

Thanks to dial-up modems, some Egyptians are able to login to international modem pools outside the government’s control. Internet activist groups like Werebuild and Telecomix are publishing lists of international modem-dial up numbers. While, there are several Egyptian ISPs that offer dial-up, but these, at best, still keep their users locked in Egypt, and I’m told by sources in Egypt that they often don’t work even for connecting with other Egyptian sites.

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