Wired to wireless?

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 05/03/2010 01:53 PM, Richard Chonak wrote:
> On 05/03/2010 06:45 AM, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
>  > A question for the comm techies out there -
>  >
>  > You have a wired network via a major provider - comcast, verizon, rc=
n,
>  > etc, at your home.
>  >
>  > Your neighbor (someone on your street) also subscribes to the same
>  > provider.   Can they see your traffic?    Can you see theirs?
>  >
>
> Back in the 1990s, when I used Comcast cable-modem "service" in=20
> Cambridge, my Linux system regularly received broadcast packets from=20
> Windows PCs scanning for net-neighbors.   Most of these queries were=20
> routine and benign, but occasionally there were attempts at=20
> information-gathering or intrusion.   Conversely, those packets could=20
> have enabled me to gather info about their machines, if I'd been so=20
> inclined.
>
> I don't know whether any changes to the cable-internet service=20
> infrastructure have prevented such exposures.  Any ideas?
>
>  =20
I was an early adopter of cable Internet back in the mid-1990s (maybe
1994 before the BCS ended). At that time, cable Internet was just 1 big
LAN. At one point, Continental Cablevision started to add some security.
With the advent of DOCSIS in the late 1990s, cable operators were able
to impose security. Comcast now uses DOCSIS 3 that uses AES encryption.
RCN is just now upgrading to DOCSIS 3 (at work I have DOCSIS 2 and I
can't get in touch with my contact to find out when DOCSIS 3 will be
rolled out in my area). DOCSIS 3 also allows a much higher bandwidth.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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