Haystack needs your help to support a free Internet in Iran!
23
Jul
A Stick for the Stack?

A Stick for the Stack?

I know it’s a cheesy title but a lot of people have asked how they can help Haystack. We’re working on new ways each day that people can chip in just a little to have a big impact. Today I’m thrilled to announce our first public effort: USB thumb drives! Distribution will largely be a person-to-person effort, and we all know USB keys are nice and tiny. I get the tiny 128mb versions all the time at tech conferences, and now I’ve learned they’re actually useful ;-)

So if you’ve got some spare USB keys laying around, why not send them for us to use for Haystack? Just stick them in a regular envelope (or the bubbly kind, just no boxes please) and mail to:

Austin Heap
PO Box 423060
San Francisco, CA 94142
USA

I’ll always post new ways you can help out here, but a “master list” will be kept on Haystack’s donation page.

Related posts:

  1. Building the ‘stack
  2. Guardian Innovator of the Year
  3. Anti-Censorship Software Licensed by US Government for Export to Iran
  4. Haystack: Good Luck Finding That Needle
  5. New Day, New Internet Threats in Iran
Tags Posted under Iran, Technology by Austin

36 Responses


  • The USB Key to success. :->

    by: Walt, Jul 24th at 12:26 am

  • Is there still any need for the individual anonymous proxies? If so, will you give us a heads up when we become redundant? I’m fine to keep running my proxy for a while, but I don’t intend to leave it up forever.

    by: interleaper, Jul 24th at 5:28 am

  • THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK.I DON’T FEEL COMFORTABLE PAYING ONLINE.I WILL SEND YOU A CHECK FOR $100.SORRY THAT’S ALL I CAN EFFORT FOR NOW.I HOPE OTHER PEOPLE ARE MORE GENEROUS.YOU DESERVE ALL THE HELP YOU CAN GET.INNOCENT PEOPLE AND POLITICAL PRISONERS IN IRAN NEED YOUR EXPERTISE.GOD BLESS YOU TWO.MANIJE.CA.USA.

    by: Manije, Jul 24th at 9:40 am

  • Are you interested in perhaps having a place to ship donated USB keys to Canada? I like to see it easier for Canadians to participate without dealing with shipping something over the border. We could either bulk ship them to you or do the installs here…

    If you’re interested, let’s talk about what it would take to make this happen.

    by: Sean Yo, Jul 24th at 10:55 am

  • I will send my USB key to the address provided on website

    by: sima afshari, Jul 24th at 11:54 am

  • As you might know the senate just passed the The Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act. Among the key features of the VOICE act are: Authorizaton of funds to be used to establish additional proxy server capability and anti-censorship software to counter efforts to block access to websites in Iran; support the development of technologies, including websites, that will aid the ability of the Iranian people to gain access to and share information; counter efforts to block, censor, or monitor the Internet in Iran.

    Have you looked into getting any help though this act to support the great task you have undertaken.

    by: kia, Jul 24th at 4:32 pm

  • According to ESR’s NedaNET website (http://nedanet.org), the Iranian government now appears to be doing deep packet inspection. He has recommended to set up Tor relays instead of proxies for this reason.

    Could someone please comment as to whether Haystack users will be vulnerable to deep packet inspection?

    by: Mayo, Jul 27th at 3:04 pm

  • it is so interesting. people hardly created a filter proxy and then they found that it is harmful for human life. why we can not estimate our decision. we are responsible for our jobs. I am so glad you are thinking about others.

    by: notorius, Jul 27th at 3:22 pm

  • Hi Notorius,

    To be fair, this is a very fluid situation. The Iranian government changes its tactics constantly, so we must adapt ours as well. A month ago no one could have foreseen their level of sophistication. Univeral deep packet inspection is a pretty extreme means of censorship, if in fact that’s what they’re using.

    Hopefully one of the Haystack developers will reassure us that deep packet inspection has been taken into account, or they will explain why it’s not really a concern.

    I’ve tried to research this on my own, but I get the sense that they’re being deliberately vague about how Haystack works. This of course would be understandable.

    by: Mayo, Jul 27th at 4:17 pm

  • Austin,

    I sent you a Facebook message. I’d like to talk to you about this offline.

    Erich

    by: Erich Ferrari, Jul 27th at 4:44 pm

  • Austin,

    I am from Iran. Thank you very much for all your help. But how can you distribute the USB keys? It is totally impossible. You may just upload it on several websites SIMULTANEOUSLY so that the government can not detect and block them all at once. We will download it and distribute it ourselves. This would be a great help.

    Warmest regards and thanks from millions of my people.

    Sam

    by: Sam, Jul 27th at 6:16 pm

  • I could take charge of the distributions from the UK. Is this something you will be interested in?

    by: Kasra, Jul 27th at 6:38 pm

  • “is there any guarantee that this works in Iran?
    If you are sure, I can provide you with about 100 usb or more! I am from Iran and even I can send it there. please let me know!!

    by: freedom4iran, Jul 28th at 12:11 am

  • It may not be long before Americans will need this technology.

    by: Jim, Jul 28th at 12:24 am

  • Can you elaborate a little bit on how this is actually gonna work. I don’t see how you are going to distribute the stick on a “person-to-person” basis in Iran.

    by: Amin, Jul 28th at 9:53 am

  • I dont think it is a good idea whatsoever to discuss how these USB keys will be distributed, obviously the Iranian government is monitoring the Haystack site. There is obviously a plan that has been setup, and that’s all that needs to be said.
    It is likely that the Iranian goverenment is receiving assistance from both the Russian and Chinese governments on the subject of deep packet inspection. That may explain their level of sophistication.
    But that’s okay, ordinary American citizens who love freedom always welcome a challenge.
    For the Iranian Intelligence agencies monitoring this site, tell Mahmoud we said hi.
    Have a nice day.

    by: anonymous, Jul 29th at 10:11 am

  • I’m still curious about Haystack’s resistance to deep packet inspection. I don’t want our pals in Iran to unwittingly expose themselves to more risk than is necessary by sending unencrypted packets to a proxy pool.

    Please feel free to email me if you need any development help. USB sticks are on their way.

    by: Mayo, Jul 29th at 12:06 pm

  • Dear Austin,

    Isnt it more logical to send this soft via email???
    Beleive me, we Iranian are able to check our emails plus there are somewhere with high speed net.

    Cheers,
    Kamelia- Iran

    by: kamelia, Jul 30th at 5:17 am

  • Dear Austin,

    I don’t understand why we are distributing the software the way we are.

    1) I think we could put this into a Firefox plug-in, which will reduce the size of the software dramatically; making the distribution much easier.

    2) If the software is distributed to individuals we trust, then they could distribute it to individuals they trust and etc. This will be much faster method and the amount of investment increases as people are more willing to buy USB sticks for their friends and people they know.

    With this method technical people like me could setup ftp’s any provide the passwords to their friends and put the allowance of 1 download so the password needs to be regenerated for each new download request.
    This increases the download sites astronomically, hence the speed of distribution increases.

    – Kasra

    by: kasra, Jul 30th at 7:36 am

  • Hello, I’m from Iran and received news about your blog from my friends, I can just say, thank you!

    by: Sara, Jul 30th at 1:58 pm

  • I agree with Kasra, if you send it to people who can distribute it to others, it’s a better way, because for sure in post office as soon as they understand, they will check all flash disk, they are so dirty. if you send it to Iranian people who knows others, they can easily distribute it to other iranians

    by: Sara, Jul 30th at 2:03 pm

  • Thanks Sara.

    As a tech guy who has lived on the wrong side of the Iranian censorship I know how it works.

    1) The post office is not relaiable at all! Everything is controlled by the government so you can’t post anything.

    2) Internet is dial-up, you hardly find people with more than 256 kb\s internet connections. Hence the plugin suggestion, as Firefox is widely available.

    3) Haystack protocol should be bullet proof as it WILL get in the wrong hands.

    I have time to help out; I am collecting USB sticks, and donations.

    by: Kasra, Jul 30th at 5:05 pm

  • Dear Austin , thank you very much…its a good idea if you send it by mail or uplode it somewhere then we can distribute it ourselves.
    we never forget your help.

    by: Neda, Jul 31st at 4:45 am

  • I don’t care if it works or not and how you are going to distribute it …
    The only thing is your care about Iranian People …
    Many Thanks …

    by: Ali Irani, Aug 1st at 4:17 am

  • I’ve got a stupid question. Why do you need USB-Sticks to distribute Haystack? Why don’t you burn the software to a CD and distribute the CD? Why are USB-Sticks so important? Thanks, Wolfgang.

    by: Wolfgang, Aug 9th at 7:35 am

  • how can i download this while in Iran? I’m running MacOSx and i cannot download it from the website of haystacknetwork.com. That site is filtered. If someone could, please email me a MAC COMPATIBLE VERSION. A direct link or something.
    Merci, khoda negahdareh hamaton basheh.
    arian1700@gmail.com

    by: Arian, Jun 8th at 3:57 am

  • how can i download this while in Iran? I’m running MacOSx and i cannot download it from the website of haystacknetwork.com. That site is filtered. If someone could, please email me a MAC COMPATIBLE VERSION. A direct link or something.
    Merci, khoda negahdareh hamaton basheh.
    arian1700@gmail . com

    by: Arian, Jun 8th at 3:59 am

  • sorry for double post

    by: Arian, Jun 8th at 4:03 am

  • hi.please send your softwar haystack or link download to my e-mail
    e-maile: ebrahhim31@yahoo.com

    by: nima, Jul 9th at 5:39 am

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