Multi-drop PPPoE (Re: [ale] Mindspring/Earthlink DSL and linux?)

[Thompson Freeman]

On Tue, 5 Sep 2000, Wandered Inn wrote:

> Thompson Freeman wrote:
> > 
> > I haven't played with it yet - but the box claims to include some sort of
> > packet firewall protection of the network which is configurable. How
> > effective the protection is could only be determined by experiment, and
> > I lack the personal skills to do a good job of that.
> 
> Valid point.  I guess you have to balance the issues of how comfortable
> you are with this solution verses gaining the skills to build your own
> or validate this solution (the latter being much more fun. :) )
> 
> My personal opinion is:
> 
> 1. If you're planning to have an always on connection,
> 2. you have anything you value on any of the computers connected to this
> connection,
> 3. you owe it to yourself to be able to verify that your solution works.
> 
> Then again, not a whole lot of people actually test a seat belt, they
> just assume it will protect them. (I've personally tested a couple of
> seat belts, although not intentionally...)

Likewise, I've done secondary seat belt testing without intending
to. I'm not sure, however, that the analogy is completely accurate, as
seat belts are tested by the manufacturer and other organizations as part
of a mature technical system. I'd hesitate to call the firewall of a small
SOHO style network part of a mature technical system at this time. And
_nobody_ is testing the setup you put in place for you, so the point about
testing is still valid. 

On that level, I wonder how many ISP's offer a security scanning service
to their customers? Even as an extra charge?

> 
> > 
> > Other ALE list members have pointed out that there are alternatives. I
> > haven't checked them out at this time, however.
> > 
> 
> --
> Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at denali.atlnet.com
> 
> Microsoft != Innovation
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> 

-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at digichem.net

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