Internet security on high-speed connections

[Pete Loshin]

At 02:18 PM 12/1/99 +0000, Chuck Young wrote:
>Niall,
>
>Can you please explain exactly what this does for you and how it works
>with your ISP (assuming M1)?  I'm curious.

[bit about plugging the M1 cable modem directly into a hub deleted]

Depending on what kind of hub you're using, this is risky: M1 (as I
understand it) does not really like seeing broadcasts on its wire, and if
your network is not correctly set up you may start sending traffic to the
modem that it's not really supposed to see or forward.

Plus, in general it's not really safe to have such a direct connection to
your local network. If you're going to connect a LAN to the Internet (which
is what's happening when you do this) you really should have a firewall set up.

I've got M1 and am about to sign up with Concentric/Covad (performance has
been degrading as they roll the service out to more and more users, or so
it seems). With Covad's basic service for home/office networks, you get 4
IP addresses (it's not clear to me that it's not actually 2 bits of IP
address space, in which case you've really only got two usable IP
addresses, or really REALLY only one, since one gets burned for the use of
the router); for some extra money you get 8 IP addresses (again, I assume
they mean 3 bits of IP address space).

When I asked about security, they said, "oh, if you want security, you
should probably put in a firewall--we don't provide any security services."
Though they didn't say anything about it until I asked, which is a pretty
cavalier attitude IMHO.

YMMV, of course.

-pl


+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Loshin                    http://Internet-Standard.com |
|                                                             |
| _IPv6 Clearly Explained_ Morgan Kaufmann January 1999       |
| _TCP/IP Clearly Explained_ 3rd ed Morgan Kaufmann June 1999 |
|                                                             |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

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