January 5, 2026
Wi‑Fi vs. warfare: comment section explodes
Keeping Syria connected during war: Surviving ISIS and Intelligence
Readers gasp, skeptics push back, and everyone asks who kept the Wi‑Fi on
TLDR: An engineer’s brush with ISIS at a checkpoint shows how people kept Syria’s internet running through war. Comments split: many were gripped by the drama, while skeptics argued it’s overstated, debating bribes, propaganda, and the unseen workers who kept families connected when everything else fell apart.
Doug Madory’s piece spotlights “Mahmoud,” a Syrian telecom engineer who hit an ISIS (Islamic State) checkpoint on a bus, unlocked his laptop, and got pulled aside after a selfie in front of a giant Huawei computer cluster caught attention. The comments went popcorn mode: Artistry121 was floored — “unlike anything else I’ve read” — while flawn called the tale thrilling. Spelk revived the old question: who keeps warzone internet alive, and how did the Islamic State stay online? Readers gossiped about underpaid engineers, patched‑together networks, and the human grit that keeps messages moving.
Then came the pushback. Ceejayoz said the story “drastically overstates the situation,” dropping a skeptical Wikipedia link. Nubg fixated on the aftermath — the report to military intelligence and the alleged bribe — fueling debate over survival vs. sensationalism. Humor bubbled up: “IT guy vs. ISIS HR,” “unlock your laptop or lose your signal,” and Eid group‑chat memes. In the end, the thread split between goosebumps and side‑eye, but agreed on one thing: in a war, the people keeping the lights — and the internet — on are unlikely heroes, and their stories raise uncomfortable questions about power, propaganda, and staying connected.
Key Points
- •Doug Madory, a network analyst at Kentik, studies geopolitics and digital infrastructure and was profiled by The Washington Post.
- •Madory analyzed internet outages during the Arab Spring while at Renesys and Dyn Research.
- •He relied on insights from “Mahmoud,” a senior Syria Telecom engineer who shared internal details and now lives safely outside Syria.
- •In 2013, Mahmoud encountered an ISIS checkpoint while traveling from Aleppo to Idlib, where his ID, passport, and laptop were inspected.
- •Mahmoud’s China training and photos, including a Huawei computing cluster, highlighted Syria’s reliance on Chinese telecom equipment.