What Happens If The Internet Goes Down? Read This!

Ohhh My! No technology, what a disaster,NOT. This means people would have to adjust to the old days when internet, texting, blogs, social media and all those lazy tools did not exist. Pen, paper, and a telephone(without apps) only make calls. Holy Bat C--P said it isn't a possibility? LOL

 

Honestly. No need to read . Read the question and in a true survival situation, a person/s internet should be the last thing they think about. True survivalist are more interested in how to survive, and the capability to survive without the modern conveniences such as internet and other technological devices of the such. If one is a true prepper,survivalist. Their main focus is one preparations for natural, or man made disasters or other catastrophic event.

 

We look, we just do not rely upon a technology based society. What did people do before the internet?. I understand. For people into supposed survivalism, preparedness, and living off the land. It seems technology always becomes a subject of talk in a huge way. Maybe i am a different type of survival realist. It must be my mistake as i have entered into a Technology forum, not a survivalist forum. I apologize.

 

No! Apparently i am smart enough to know how to comprehend what i see, and research in newspapers, and such. To be mentally capable enough to know that with all the issues with technology, and the major down falls it creates. I stay as far away as possible. You can call me whatever you like, as this shows your ignorance, "Sticks and Stones". I wish all the techies out there the best, and hope you never lose your brain (in the devices you must have to survive) Good Luck to all.

 

So, it looks like we will be back to short-wave radio. I think we need patriots reporting uncensored news from mobile transmitters and transmitters off the coasts of nations. Even if the web doesn't collapse, still the censorship is very tight. Go up against the politically correct Gestapo and all of your comments will be banned. I hope everyone out there has a radio that will pick up short wave transmissions. When the SHTF, non-government-controlled sources of information will be critical.

 

Amazon's S3 Server went bonkers today causing major disruptions on the Web, especially the East Coast of the US. Just a taste of things to come.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...ud-service-goes-down-sites-scramble/98530914/

 

I love my laptop, kindles and smart phone!!! All that admitted I also am very aware that all of these things are VERY dependent on things over which I have little control. I have all of my survival related reference materials in book and paper form. I also have a lot of batteries and a small generator. I've lived through several major power loses. When a hurricane sweeps through those of us in the rural areas may be without for anywhere from a week to in one case almost 6 weeks. They get the power back on in the cities in a hurry but the rest takes a while.

The thing that I missed the most was my news channels and sites. I'm here to tell you that local small town radio just isn't as informative as I'm used to and even the channels out of Houston are pretty useless. Radio is just not very heavy as far a news anymore. The local radio channel was more helpful. They let the people know where various aid was available. There were water, ice and MREs available at the sheriffs department and various Churches were feeding at least one hot meal a day at various locations. The problem is that you have to know when the local news is going to be put out on that local channel that you may/probably don't listen to normally. My laptop is a great source and storage for/of information but I understand that it is only good if you have regular availability to power.

Let me tell you about some of my rather "different" survival supplies. I have almost 30,000 books. Most are fiction but there are nonetheless hundreds of reference books. I could probably fill a 5 gallon bucket almost half full of dice and I never fail to pick up a deck of cards that I see at a garage sale or flea market that is unopened or a box of dominoes that are in good shape . I collect vintage board games and among my books are a couple dozen Rule Books for card, domino and dice games. I couldn't begin to guess how many lamps and lanterns that I have or how many nonelectric stoves. I have almost every tool out there for just about any craft or hobby and more fishing tackle then a hundred people could ever use. I also have a lot of money in coin form and small bills and silver...I like and have guns and ammo but that is a different thing.

Basically, once things settle just a little bit people start looking around for things to DO for entertainment and to pass the time. When we have been without power I have to confess me, my family and our friends and neighbors have had a pretty good time. We cook, light up the yard with lanterns and just have a party. Everyone brings stuff out of their freezers and we eat like kings. We play cards, dominoes, Yahtzee, horseshoes, washers and everyone takes home some books to read. A library will become a very valuable resource for any community and be a place where you can gather and decimate information. We also went down to the river and fished and had a fish fry one night.

When I sort of bugged out almost 30 years ago I intentionally looked for a small town with a rural sort of populace to move near to. In the event of things going down our little town has several things you don't find in a big city. We have an old time store that butchers both game and domestic stock. They also smoke hams and cure their own bacon. There are hundreds and hundreds of cattle, pigs, goats and horses all around here. There is a big river that runs through the town and also a bunch of stock ponds and lakes all around.

Without power the past will more easily resurface in the rural places than elsewhere. We are already more self-sufficient minded. There ARE no police to call. There is no pizza delivery and the selection of stores makes shopping something you have to drive a 30 to 50 mile round trip to do. A lot of us are older and that can be an advantage in some ways. Most of us garden and even have experience with canning, smoking and such along with experience in a lot of old school things.

Power has turned many of us into isolated individuals. The TV, Computers and Phones have replaced the things people used to do for evening and afternoon pleasure. When I was a kid as soon as supper was done we went outside on the porch or in the yard while the house cooled off. The neighbors came, my Mama always had coffee ready, and while the kids played the parents visited. They had card parties, yard parties, covered dish dinners, the men played poker the women would gather up the younguns and go to the park...other people were your entertainment AND friends. Now most people sit in a chair or on the couch in their living-room and plug in.

You need to think NOW, what are you going to do to keep from going stir crazy and/or KILL your kids and spouse when the power goes off. Start playing games now and gathering the things for outdoor play. (Croquet, Horseshoes, Volleyball/Badminton net and stuff, Washers) You need cards, dice and dominoes and books of rules. Hoyle makes all sizes of these. I have all sorts of radios that can cover almost any band. I am thinking about setting up another CB base station, back before mobile cell telephones I used CBs to communicate with my family . They all had one in their car and I had a base. We even had a couple of walkie talkies that were on the CB channels. All worked off of 12 volts even the base.

If the power drops off you are going to have enough to deal with. You will NEED to have ways to relax and be at ease. Besides you might even find that you can have fun without plugging in. When my kids were little until they got out of high school we unplugged the TV every year for the month of May. We usually didn't fall back into the habit of flopping in front of the TV until September when school started and it started getting dark earlier.

 

Matters of survivalbility considers many aspect such as preparedness and alternatives. If the internet went down without a fact many would suffers but in real sense someone else will come up with a new alternative to replace it. I doubt whether it will come close but it will be better than a no internet life

 

When the internet goes down and someday it will all I can say is I'll miss you all I hope you all the best

 

Would have thought you would have read it as one needs to know ones potential opponents!
You may already know these things but without reading it you do not know if you already know!

 

This scenario gave me the chills. I'm so glad it's not real. Oh, my goodness. At the same time, it's ironic because think about it. Only a few years ago, we weren't as advanced as we were now. The iPhone wasn't around before 2007. It's only about 10-11 years old. So that means that if you were born in the last century before 2000, you spent a good chunk of your life without the latest and greatest technology, and you will remember it too. I still remember when camera phones were not a thing and I was a kid in the early 2000s. I remember going on big brick computers and using versions of Windows older than XP. We live in a world where the iPhone 6 is considered old. If this kind of scenario occurred in real life, I would hope it would not be as bad as this, but people have become so used to technology, that they take things for granted and forget how to do basic things. You don't even have to turn on the lights by yourself now. In some places, you can scan a card instead of turning a key to enter your home. It's crazy. We can't just blame young people for using technology all the time. It ends and starts with everyone. We need to take a chance to stop and smell the roses, which I know is unlikely in this hustle and bustle world.

 

If everything and everyone is dependent on the internet, it would be a great chaos once it went down. Internet is good for meeting people all over the world as well as a way to communicate to our family and loveones abroad. Once the internet went down, people will worry and panic. Worry for their families and loveones who are far away from them, money in the bank and business which depend mainly on internet to operate as well as having a job that rely on internet.

 

I've recently been thinking about this sort of thing again and doing so reading and research. IF the internet goes down you will suddenly find that more iffy. Banks these days are massively computer operated and are all sort of joined at the hip via the internet. Suddenly all plastic will be useless. I haven't written a check in a couple of years myself and until I got to thinking about this stuff recently I didn't even know where my check book was at or if I had any checks left.

The next thing that you have to understand is that most modern stores are totally incapable of operating without their computers up and connected. Expect most major sized stores to close for a while. They will eventually reset and adjust their book keeping so that they can sell but it will all be decisions made by the home office and not locally controls. With banks also shut down I really wonder how long people are going to accept checks that they can't deposit. Also how will they pay their vendors if they can't cash or deposit their receipts?

In 1999 I thought a lot about this and by December 31 I had pretty much liquidated my assets into hard cash, silver, gold and trade goods just in case. Y2K turned out to be not much of a problem but those of us that understood the problem were sweating somewhat. After it was settled down I put most of it back into the bank in various forms but not all of it. I decided that as low as the interest rates are these days I wants a chunk of it in my hands in the form of real currency.

I eventually sold all the gold. It is a very bad choice for currency for the simple reason that it is just too darn valuable. $20.00 worth of gold is not much more than a tiny SPECK of gold that weighs about 1/100th of an ounce. How do you by a chicken off a farmer with gold? You would need a microscope to count change!! So I converted to silver in coin form mostly and just regular cast in coin and paper form. Nearly every time I make a deposit at my bank I pick up a 25 dollar roll of dollar coins. Coins don't burn and my wife doesn't get into my stash when it is coins. LOL.

If things go bad I'm going to be writing checks left and right then when they stop taking those I'm going to be spending the paper money hard and fast. I silver, and coin currency I will hold a little tighter. If things don't just go all the way down there may be several years when we will be back on a cash basis. Most people have VERY little cash on any given day and in order for the merchants to buy and sell they will need currency, I have several bags that I made out of the legs off worn out jeans that are full of coins from penny to half dollar. I have a couple thousand dollars in dollar coins and then my silver.

I also didn't dispose of all my trade goods. These are the small but oh so necessary things that people will want and need no matter what. In 1999 I have 5 cases of cheap whiskey in half pint bottles. Now I have pure grain alcohol. I will mix it with spring water and sell it by the ounce. I also have spices and herbs of both taste, medical and recreations types and seeds for most of it. 22Lr bullets!! LOTS and lots of them. All sorts of fishing supplies and gear. Reloading components such that almost no matter what gun you have I will probably be able to reload your cases for you. Drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, Imodium, benidril, amoxicillin, etc.

I also have more books than you would ever believe. Fiction, Nonfiction and reference in mass. With no TV, phones, radio, computers or much of anything else I bet those books will have a lot of value. I also probably have nearly a hundred decks of cards and 300 or 400 dice. Basically once things settle down I would like to organize my little community into a cooperative group and by setting myself up as a trading post, library and maybe a cafe/bar I will have a lot of influence.

I also have three wildly qualified and massively armed cohorts that will provide security. One is a competitive shooter in three gun combat competitions, one is a Navy Seal and One was a government contractor in Afganastan. He can't tell me what he did there because then he would have to kill me LOL but I've seen him in action and he is insanely well trained. They will come to live with me and mine. They are already like family anyway.

The biggest thing that the internet does is allow the banks and stores to make instant transactions allowing them to use your money for free. All financial matters that you can't hold in your hands may well cease to exist if the net just totally bombs. If you wait until it happens it will be too late. Start now. Save your change, grab dollar coins when you can. Small denomination silver isn't too bad. I have a bunch of ¼ oz silver rounds that look like quarters but are just bullion and not currency. I even have some of the same of copper bullion. Go to the dollar stores and buy matches and lighters. You KNOW that those will have value in a hurry.

I have printed out a lot of my computer files. Some of it is invaluable My lap top can run off of the car charging system for a long time but the printer would be a pill to wire up and run once the generator is done. The only use that I have for the generator is to keep the freezer cold and probably won't run more than a couple hours a night. I am considering getting a barrel of kerosene. That would cover heating and light for quite a while.

Sorry for wandering so far afield. I'm hurting tonight and couldn't sleep. This is what I will miss most if things go to the pits. In the long nights I read and write. I don't just bug you with my wandering missives though.

 

I remember, back when I worked at the hospital and internet went down we had no way to work. We panicked. Callled every IT guy. Panicked again. Because without the internet we couldn't reach the medical records and even if you CAN treat a patient without it, it's a huge loss, especially if the patient have no medical papers so we have no idea about his/her medications, operations, diseases, etc.
so yes; nowadays the internet connection is pretty important and it's not just about that you can't use Facebook.

 

If the internet went down permanently I would take a small financial hit but I'd get a lot more work done in a day.
As far as a temporary internet outage...welcome to my world...I get that already.

 

This is really a scary specially when this happens to a huge part of the world. Imagine you are living in a city so modern - stores are computerized, securities, doors etc. Then suddenly the internet goes down. There will be a lot of people who will take advantage of this and will go breaking into those stores or building. And if internet is down, most probably the cellular reception will be down as well, so it will be kind of hard for police to respond.

 

Anyone here familiar with "Escape from LA"? Well if the internet goes down "Welcome to the human race"

 

The internet is basically an almost living thing in that it was grown rather than built. Computers are the same in a lot of ways as we discovered in 1999. As they evolved the new parts were built on top of the older parts. The problem in Y2K was that the base programming where the computers were "taught" how to deal with time was in the very bottom layer of the programming and in programming languages that nobody used anymore. They had 75 year old people trying to modify it because nobody younger had ever heard of some of this.

The internet has grown the same way and there are parts of it that are "uncertain". Like the phone systems. Used to be that long distance calls were very expensive based on how far the calls had to travel. The reason there are no charges now is because when they were sued it came out that once the computers took over the management of the calls nobody could ever know the route the call would take. A call to your next door neighbor might be routed through lines across the country from you on its way next door. Phone calls travel a lot like pachinko balls bouncing from one place to another taking the first open path available at that nanosecond.

The infrastructure of most modern activities are not something that we can just turn on and off. Without these almost living controls we would end up with a mid 1800s civilization after a period of total anarchy. We have very much placed all our eggs in one very fragile basket.

A friend was involved in helping the Russians try to get their economy on its feet after the communist regime sort of faded out. They couldn't get it to work. INFRASTRUCTURE is what allows a farmer to get seed and plant at the right time. Then when it is time to harvest it allows the crops to be brought in processed and NOT rot in the fields or silos. Then the stuff that is made from this has to be moved made and again shipped before it rots. Russia is still losing most of their crops before it makes the trip from the farm to the stores shelves! It sounds simple but it is a massively complex juggling act that we seem to do effortlessly but don't know exactly how to get it started from scratch.

Without the internet our infrastructure will collapse and once it is gone we won't be able to just start it up again because like the routing of the phone lines we don't know or control the EXACT timing of that juggle. The computers handle it for us in mass and the people that used to do some of this are long gone along with that knowledge. Banking can no longer be done with pencils and paper if for no other reason then there aren't near enough people left that can do manual arithmetic. Banks used to close at 2:00 because it took them 3 hours to balance and close their books at the end of each work day!!!!

 

I use every bit of technology available to me all the time. But I also know what I need for survival. Basic everyday needs can be met with zero internet. Internet has become the medium thru which our daily lives revolve. When the SHTF, normal life as we know it will be disrupted. But it hasn't been that long since we lived life more "manually" & we will revert back quickly after the initial crash, riots & general calamity.
In short, the Internet is fantastic when it's working. Don't become so dependant on the technology that your life will be threatened when it disappears.

 

Well, I had my formative years without internet, and would STILL rather talk and interact with my loved ones in person rather than online.

That being the case, I think once the internet goes down, there will be a few weeks of chaos, then somehow, we'll just find a way to make do with phones, tv's, and radios. We'll just go back to reading physical books and newspapers and playing outdoors.

Where I live, the internet infrastructure is still flaky, and most transactions are still done in cash. And so, we do lose internet once in a while and it doesn't bother us as much...unless you're a millenial...

I remember paying something in LA with a hundred dollar bill...and the saleslady looked at me like I was a criminal...

 

One thing that will definitely happen is that landlines are going to be sooooo busy. Many businesses will dig up these old devices, take a few minutes to recover their yellow pages from the storage room, and start transacting through phone.

 

Every time I head into my favorite mountain retreat the first wave of peace that washes over me is when the DAMN cell phone stops ringing. No electric, no phones, no internet.
And I feel right at home.

 

No web, no problem. We'd simply go back to short wave. My father and his brothers all had short wave (tube-type radios) in their vehicles. I remember in the 1950s and 60s having Dad talk to whoever whenever we were on the road -- that was one BIG and heavy radio under the dash, steel bracket, along with a "I don't know how long" whip antenna. One uncle was a civilian vigilante who the cops could count on if they needed "a job" done / needed help from a combat veteran (several to be called upon). He was out late at night, armed of course. I remember him putting a snub in a back pocket; gets some money out his safe. Dad carried a black jack; Dad's chest was as thick as it was wide. My uncle usually with friends or a woman (his wife had abandoned him, I'd have not allowed that; just saying, his business). He had a 390 cubic inch engine in his car and a huge whip antenna when out our central garage. Dad hid gambling machines next garage over. Everyone legal, cops, and "other" had radios. Nowadays its my oldest son into short wave. No web, no problem. Sh## gets done. People talk. It's genetic. The original Americans had smoke signals. People talk. It's genetic. We always will get the jobs done.

 

Without the internet people will be totally lost. The art of making sense out of paper information is now a totally lost thing on anyone 40 or less. LOL, I bet most of those people have never heard of the Dewey decimal system and nobody has an encyclopedia anymore. Our library is almost useless for doing the kind of things we used to use it for like research for school papers. Even after they found a book I'm not sure that they would know how to find the little piece of info that they wanted. I am afraid that it will soon be like the way it is trying to get people to do arithmetic anymore with their minds or pencil and paper. The brain is a muscle and the internet and calculators are turning our grandkids into mental midgets.

I have a young friend who is about 27 that I fish with and it amazed me to find out that he really doesn't understand that KNOWING something is more than knowing how to look it up on the phone for instructions. I was trying to teach him how to tie some fishing knots and he told me that he knew how to tie all of them. A little later I asked if he knew how to tie a blood knot and he said, "Sure." and grabbed his phone and looked it up! God love him, he claims to be an expert shot based on his having top ratings on a stupid video game. I know that he sounds like some sort of retarded person but he is actually a pretty bright kid. If you took away his phone though I'm not sure that he could find his way home! The phone and computer are his hard drive and he carries very little around in his head.

 

Patients beware the "July effect"!
https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsr...nd-efficiency-decreases-in-teaching-hospitals

http://health.usnews.com/health-new...headed-to-the-hospital-beware-the-july-effect

Know that iPhones and pocket computers with unlimited references do NOT cure patients.

Knowledge does not speak to skill.

And, Wisdom trumps smarts any day.