Axalon Bloodstone wrote:
> it's not different from being on a dialup, your just as open then.
>
There is a big difference, actually.
On a cable modem, your home computer is part of a large ethernet
segment. Any user can sniff your packets because everyone's data
appears on the other user's ethernet port.
A dialup system, however, has a separate router port for every
dialup. The administrator, or someone upstream of the dialup
server router can sniff packets, but a USER on another dialup
cannot. Each dialup port sees only the data routed to it.
To give an example.
Let us say two systems, one dialup and one cable. Both have
identical POP3 mail servers. Further, the administrator has
a computer on the same ethernet as the mail server. Question,
who can see what?
A user checks mail. This is a cleartext POP3 mail function with
username and passwords sent in the clear, INCLUDING the
administrator
when he checks his mail.
A user on a cable system can sniff all packets and grab anyone
else's username and password, including that of the adminstrator.
God help the admin if he uses a root password! Home networks
are particularly vulnerable as the passwords etc sent among
their computers also appear on the entire cable system segment.
On a dialup system, however, the administrator can sniff out
all user packets because he is on the common ethernet part.
However,
the dialup users, being on separate router ports cannot sniff
the administrator's password nor that of the other users.
This has been a fantastic screwup problem on cable systems and all
sorts of esoteric security methods are being devised or
implemented
with varying degrees of success. In the meantime, its a hacker's
paradise!
--
Ramon Gandia ============= Sysadmin ============== Nook Net
http://www.nook.net [EMAIL PROTECTED]
285 West First Avenue tel. 907-443-7575
P.O. Box 970 fax. 907-443-2487
Nome, Alaska 99762-0970 ==== Alaska Toll Free. 888-443-7525
