Would phones/internet work in Case of Apocalypse

[Guest]

Keep it ol'school...

[cj14 189]

I know....it sounds like a stupid question to ask.The phone grid would overflow by the massive call number and fail.

But,what happens after?

Would there be a way to restore phone and possible internet communications?

And how long would it take for the communication system to fail due to the lack of maintance?

 

According to a show on History Channel (can't remember the name) phone grid would collapse 4 hours after the incident and restore 3 days later for about 1 or 2 weeks, then everyone would die and things would not get maintenance. Internet would collapse a lot faster

[blissfulkunt 196]

If I couldnt check the DayZ forums in an apocalypse I might as well end my life anyways, DayZ forums are my facebook hahaha

[Damnyourdeadman 1045]

349 posts? Are you ever serious? 349 so you can't be a troll.... you must be american or a complete idiot.

Thanks for your kindness,but sadly neither i am trolling or an American citizen.

We mostly were discussing,how long will the communication systems would take to fail,what are the alternatives and if anything can

be salvaged/restored.If for example it was viable to restore some sort of communication,or have alternatives besides walkie-talkies things like that would make an excellent addition for DayZ.But you see,i need to make sure that what i'm gonna suggest is supported in real life.

[BL1P 252]

[Zjasuu 337]

Thanks for your kindness,but sadly neither i am trolling or an American citizen.

We mostly were discussing,how long will the communication systems would take to fail,what are the alternatives and if anything can

be salvaged/restored.If for example it was viable to restore some sort of communication,or have alternatives besides walkie-talkies things like that would make an excellent addition for DayZ.But you see,i need to make sure that what i'm gonna suggest is supported in real life.

 

Anything that requires lots of electricity wont work, OFC depends on what kind of apocalypse were talking about here.

[sabaka (DayZ) 70]

My first job was as a control systems engineer in the manufacturing industry. While I've never specifically programmed or worked on the machines in a power plant I would imagine that a nuclear or hydro-electric power plant would run for a very long time without any human intervention. The machinery I programmed and worked on in giant manufacturing facilities could happily run for weeks without any human activity required.

 

I can tell you this for sure though, as long as you live somewhere near a nuclear or hydro-electric power plant the lights will be on long after you stop finding fresh, non-rotten fruit lying around.

Edited February 23, 2014 by sabaka

[crazykage 1063]

I remember seeing a tv show about the collapse of society, one of those "what if" shows, or "xxxxyears after man" or something.

 

Anyway, on this show, they talked about how hoover damn would continue to function without human intervention or maintenance for several years (I don't remember the exact number, but I think it may have been around 10), continuing to produce electricity. However, that does not account for the REST of the power grid infrastructure, ie polls, transformers, etc.

[Nicko2580 398]

I know....it sounds like a stupid question to ask.The phone grid would overflow by the massive call number and fail.

But,what happens after?

Would there be a way to restore phone and possible internet communications?

And how long would it take for the communication system to fail due to the lack of maintance?

The power grid would fail within days of an apocalypse as people begin dying and fleeing from their stations. Within a few days after that food would begin to rot. Only canned and dry food would be edible. Water sources would become corrupted. Sewage systems would break down and flood, spreading disease. Without power the world will fall into chaos within just a few short days. We rely on electricity for literally every modern convenience. This is why governments are so concerned about terrorist attacks on key power infrastructure. The potential to do damage is far greater than any bomb or other attack.

You might be able to restore power locally, but if the apocalypse is world wide, then you won't get the internet or phones back as that would require you to restore power across the globe. Radio would be your safest bet to try and contact others.

 

 

My first job was as a control systems engineer in the manufacturing industry. While I've never specifically programmed or worked on the machines in a power plant I would imagine that a nuclear or hydro-electric power plant would run for a very long time without any human intervention. The machinery I programmed and worked on in giant manufacturing facilities could happily run for weeks without any human activity required.

 

I can tell you this for sure though, as long as you live somewhere near a nuclear or hydro-electric power plant the lights will be on long after you stop finding fresh, non-rotten fruit lying around.

 

This is true too, but most places don't run on Nuclear or Hydro power. Even then the systems may continue to work but it only takes one accident and without anyone to perform maintenance on the actual machinery, things go south quickly. The apocalypse only has to be lucky once, whereas the power plants have to be lucky every day to keep functioning. 

Many countries would lose power quickly. The infrastructure would be taken down by car crashes, planes falling out of the sky, people fighting and killing and using explosives on each other. The government dropping bombs on infected cities (assuming we're talking about a Zed apocalypse) etc etc. Large chunks of the infrastructure required to supply power to an entire country would likely disappear very quickly. So while the power plants keep running in their local area, they're entirely unable to supply the rest of the country with their life-giving energy.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Nicko2580

[kendoka15 (DayZ) 2]

I know for a fact that it would take a very long time before a satellite starts de-orbiting. It might take several years really as there's nothing other than the Moon to disturb their orbit.

What you don't know though is the fact that GPS sattelites need ajusting quite often because of time dilation. The internal clocks on sattelites need ajusting too to counteract this

[hugobros3 9]

Well, as everyone already said, the datacenters will quickly run out of power ( I think OVH's one can take a few days on their generators ), and so a lot of key infrastructure would be wiped off. Only would subsist sattelite communications ( but GPS might fail if the NASA gets screwed too ) and some local networks. You can't just plug the power back in. Even if you manage to provide fuel to the generators or find a reliable power source, all the servers, routers, long-range equipment in a datacenter would require attention to resume their activites. Then you'd have access to a minor part of the internet that was stored on that datacenter.

 

But what is the point of Internet in a post-apocaliptic world ? It's far too complicated !

What would be usefull thought,is using the leftovers to build a sort of "Interanet" network out of lan cables and simple routers powered by sun or wind, to stay in touch with other survivors.

[kendoka15 (DayZ) 2]

Well, as everyone already said, the datacenters will quickly run out of power ( I think OVH's one can take a few days on their generators ), and so a lot of key infrastructure would be wiped off. Only would subsist sattelite communications ( but GPS might fail if the NASA gets screwed too ) and some local networks. You can't just plug the power back in. Even if you manage to provide fuel to the generators or find a reliable power source, all the servers, routers, long-range equipment in a datacenter would require attention to resume their activites. Then you'd have access to a minor part of the internet that was stored on that datacenter.

 

But what is the point of Internet in a post-apocaliptic world ? It's far too complicated !

What would be usefull thought,is using the leftovers to build a sort of "Interanet" network out of lan cables and simple routers powered by sun or wind, to stay in touch with other survivors.

 

Survivornet

[fundan@gmx.de 82]

What`s wrong with the walkie-talkies already ingame?

[louist 163]

Well, as everyone already said, the datacenters will quickly run out of power ( I think OVH's one can take a few days on their generators ), and so a lot of key infrastructure would be wiped off. Only would subsist sattelite communications ( but GPS might fail if the NASA gets screwed too ) and some local networks. You can't just plug the power back in. Even if you manage to provide fuel to the generators or find a reliable power source, all the servers, routers, long-range equipment in a datacenter would require attention to resume their activites. Then you'd have access to a minor part of the internet that was stored on that datacenter.

But what is the point of Internet in a post-apocaliptic world ? It's far too complicated !

What would be usefull thought,is using the leftovers to build a sort of "Interanet" network out of lan cables and simple routers powered by sun or wind, to stay in touch with other survivors.

GPS specific devices might still work, but even with the satellite network running, cell phones wouldn't be able to access them. Our cellphones have to jump through a lot of hoops just to connect with the service. If power to the cell towers drops, or power to the data centers your carrier uses to authenticate your signal/permission fails, you're hooped.

As you said, though, while the Internet would fail, setting up small networks wouldn't be terribly hard if you have the cables on hand.

[Nicko2580 398]

GPS specific devices might still work, 

Not for very long. Once the software that updates their clocks goes down on Earth, any device that connects to them will be off by a factor of 10 miles or so per day. They need to be adjusted by (I think) about 38ns every day due to considerations in both general and special relativity.

It could end up being exceptionally dangerous using a GPS after the apocalypse. I'd stick to a map.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Nicko2580

[louist 163]

Not for very long. Once the software that updates their clocks goes down on Earth, any device that connects to them will be off by a factor of 10 miles or so per day. They need to be adjusted by (I think) about 38ns every day due to considerations in both general and special relativity.

It could end up being exceptionally dangerous using a GPS after the apocalypse. I'd stick to a map.

I don't doubt you, but shouldn't that correction be automatic? The question then, is whether those corrections are handled planet-side or satellite-side. I have no idea, myself, but if the satellites alter the time stamps, GPS should run for a while, no?

[Nicko2580 398]

I don't doubt you, but shouldn't that correction be automatic? The question then, is whether those corrections are handled planet-side or satellite-side. I have no idea, myself, but if the satellites alter the time stamps, GPS should run for a while, no?

I believe they have to sync with clocks on earth, since any clock on the satellite will also suffer the effects of relativity. So in effect if a satellite tried to sync it's timekeeping clock with an atomic clock aboard the same satellite it wouldn't work, because both clocks are in the same reference frame compared to earth and would both be losing time compare to identical clocks on earth.

So once the timekeeping software on earth goes down, the satellite will be losing time relative to earth every day and that will throw your position off more and more ever hour. After as little as a few days you could be tens of miles away from what is shown on your screen.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Nicko2580

[louist 163]

I believe they have to sync with clocks on earth, since any clock on the satellite will also suffer the effects of relativity. So in effect if a satellite tried to sync it's timekeeping clock with an atomic clock aboard the same satellite it wouldn't work, because both clocks are in the same reference frame compared to earth and would both be losing time compare to identical clocks on earth.

So once the timekeeping software on earth goes down, the satellite will be losing time relative to earth every day and that will throw your position off more and more ever hour. After as little as a few days you could be tens of miles away from what is shown on your screen.

Oh, I understand that, but I'm wondering if the difference is predictable enough that the satellites themselves can make the corrections, essentially "lying" about it's own time, if that makes sense.

[Nicko2580 398]

Oh, I understand that, but I'm wondering if the difference is predictable enough that the satellites themselves can make the corrections, essentially "lying" about it's own time, if that makes sense.

Maybe. I am not sure. 

From what I know all GPS Satellites (there's around 30 currently orbiting the earth) currently update off a ground based atomic clocks (most of them using Caesium-133) which resets their own onboard atomic clock to match the one on the ground. I am not sure whether they are able to self-update, but I would have thought that if it were possible it would have been done by now to eliminate the redundancy of having a ground based system.

 

Edited February 24, 2014 by Nicko2580

[Ugly (DayZ) 79]

Survivornet

I've already trademark'd this so tough.

[reapers239 57]

you should check cdc studies result on the deseases, even with some type of new virus or bacteria and etc after a critical point everything stops. Cell phones and internet could be the first thing to go out depending of the type of spread and infaction. it would be due to lack of personnel. Truth is we cant know for certain, since i think the cdc simulation on Z apoc is based on infection spread and death rates. There could or could not have damage to infrastructer due to chaos. So it pretty much boils down to man power during the event and if there will be anyone with the know how to teach to deal with those things, if not it will be the next history channel topic of ancient civilazation lost tech .

[pale1776 375]

After the 10 y/o cod kiddies cant play dayz to kos camp and hack, theyll most likely go out of their way to ruin every aspect of whats left of civilization. Just sayin.

[DURRHUNTER 597]

After the 10 y/o cod kiddies cant play dayz to kos camp and hack, theyll most likely go out of their way to ruin every aspect of whats left of civilization. Just sayin.

It really sucks that CoD has ruined a generation of gamers. CoD really does change people, it is proven that it makes them more aggressive (which amounts a little to KoS) But i think that most power would be out for good. Survivors should be able to make dams and make electricity for their bases in the north, it would be awesome to see stuff like that.

But then again....Alpha.

[Mullraugh 1151]

We love it, adore it, use it every day, idolize it, heck - I'm sure people even worship it. But if there's one thing I don't know about the internet, it's if there's an off switch.

Does the internet run on electricity or something? I've never really thought about it. I always just assumed there was a massive tesla coil somewhere in the U.S. that had 'INTERNET' written on it. Can the internet be switched off? Or, in the case of an apocalypse, be destroyed or lose power?

Edited February 24, 2014 by mullraugh

[Duenan 226]

Depending on the advent of no power you'd have other issues. Mainly Reactors going critical all over the planet depending on how capable you believe your gov't really is. There are white papers on the subject of EMP and the effects from it not to mention books written like "One second After" which pretty much show the reality of a global/national cataclysm with just the power itself going down.

Most conservative estimates wager a 90% die off rate in the 1st year of an emp or carrington event in which the power goes out permenantly or semi permenantly. In a situation like that you would have lack of Transformers to repair the originals which have blown out.

 

In a zombie apocalypse you would have similar issues. Critical infrastructure would be destroyed as you have cascading effects. Due to the chaos you would have critical infrastructure being abandoned and you can imagine what that would look like if you play the 1st 20minutes of the Last of Us.

 

After that aside from the zombie plague itself you would have core infrastructure things, mass refrigeration systems, climate controlled systems, Most importantly non gravity controlled piping systems would be destroyed. Good luck getting water from a faucet. Enjoy freezing and baking to death at the mercy of mother nature.

 

Add in the corpses in the street and sanity issues as every single third world disease pops up overnight and for the survivors, waste management becomes a huge issue when you can't flush the toilet anymore. You certainly can't burn all your waste either as you'd be sacraficing fuel that you could heat and cook with to burn waste not to mention the fire hazard.

 

In a few months most cities would burn to the ground from a lightning strike with overgrowth and leaves building up on the ground. Skyscrapers would be gutted just like they are in Detroit.

 

In one year most unoccupied houses would be terrariums, especially these modern build homes that are constructed from little more than plywood and cardboard. Basements would be flooded in low lying areas.

 

In rural areas growth like  Kudzu and ivy and anything viny would start devouring houses along with the local wildlife and insects.

 

In 5 years you could have entire towns and housing subdivisions reduced to mossy covered caves filled with mold or the foundations depending on the climate and elevation.

 

For a coastal area like chernarus as much as it rains, some houses should be near ruins. And thats not taking into account flammable biomatter from all the trees catching on fire.

 

We should also see deer and other game wandering INSIDE the cities if you want to make it true to form.

 

We see some burn out cars but there should also be burnt out buildings with growth entangling them

 

Dayz needs to find its story and find a way to add into these nuances. But it's alpha....so i digress.