[Gllug] UK hit by major ADSL outage

[Richard Cottrill]

Tapping a phone line isn't that hard... Actually if you wanted to get really
evil I'm sure a fistful of cash would buy you sufficient hardware for a
really nifty <non-gender-specific-entity>-in-the-middle attack.

Anyway, people like passwords, it makes them feel secure. There's probably
also a billing thing if/when metered access becomes an issue for ADSL. In
that case you could have multiple logins over one physical point. I always
get nervous about breaking down the physical/abstract divide; a phone line
and an access account are not the same thing. To unify different concepts
seems a bit, well, uncomfortable for me.

Richard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gllug-admin at linux.co.uk [mailto:gllug-admin at linux.co.uk]On Behalf
> Of Rev Simon Rumble
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 12:07 PM
> To: gllug at linux.co.uk
> Subject: Re: [Gllug] UK hit by major ADSL outage
>
>
> Something somewhat related to this is a thing that's nagged me for a
> long time.  Why to ADSL providers insist on having to authenticate
> users before giving them network access?  Surely it would all be a lot
> simpler to just say "you've got the line, here's an IP".  One less
> service, one less thing to go wrong.
>
> I can understand why you'd have it on a shared-network type of system
> like cable modems or wireless but why on a point-to-point system?
> They don't have some special authentication system on your ordinary
> phone line.  If you've got the line and it's connected at the other
> end to an exchange, you can use it.  Surely the same concept should
> work for ADSL?!?!?
>
> --
> Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net>
> www.rumble.net
>
> --
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
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>


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