>Unfortunately, that relies on security built-in to cable modems. Some >people have figured out how to put their cable modems into something >called "promiscuous mode" (ethernet cards support this as well), which >allows them to receive any packet being sent on the local wire (usually >a neighborhood).
Good point. I should not have missed that. The cable company's shared-line architecture is inherently less secure because it pools everyone's traffic on the same line. There is therefore the potential for a neighbor to siphon off all the local traffic and inspect it. DSL and FiOS don't pool the traffic until it is outside the local loops so neighbors can't get to it. Of course this is the point where George Bush siphons off the traffic to build his computerized dossier of your every transaction. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
