ISP Information:
A computer case designed to sit on your desktop. It's wider than it is tall and sturdy enough to put a heavy CRT monitor on top of it.
ISP Glossary:
Desktop Case - Wednesday, February 18, 2004, 11:16:18 PM, editor wrote: [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although I do not know the particulars of this, I do know that Mr. Mike Flood, the general manager of Cable One, here in Independence told me 'that was all taken care of recently' when I asked him 'what prevents everyone on the cable from showing up in my Network Neighborhood, and the other way around.' I am sorry to say I did not understand his sort of technical explanation. Maybe some of you could explain it to me in simple words. Its not a problem with DSL, since everyone goes to the central office on their own pair. But with a cable strung around, what *does* prevent us from being each other's Neighbor for spy purposes, etc. Anyone? PAT]Actually Pat, if you don't have any decent protection, then anybody inthe world can browse your computer, simply by firing up WindowsExplorer and typing in:\\1.2.3.4(where 1.2.3.4 is your IP address)Without security, I'll get access to any shares you've got set up onthat PC.Now, in your case, you've got two good, solid lines of defense. Thefirst is your Linksys box, which will laugh off any such request fromthe outside world (unless you specifically program it to allow thissort of thing). The second is your ZoneAlarm installation, whichagain will stop any such request in its tracks.Point is, it doesn't matter whether you're on cable or DSL -- this willwork, if the protections aren't in place. The only difference withcable (and as you've noted, most cable operators have fixed this) isthat your unprotected system might BROADCAST what it's sharing to yourneighbours, who otherwise would not have known you were even there.They open up Network Neighborhood one day and say "hey, what's thisPATTOWNSON workgroup? where'd that come from?" -- they didn't golooking for you, as in my above example, your information came tothem, unbidden. As you say, that just wasn't likely to happen withDSL but even there, depending on the layout and how the ISP's routersare configured, it's not out of the question that it COULD happen withDSL.As always, practice safe computing. Wear a condom (ZoneAlarm), keepyour car doors locked (Linksys router/firewall), and be careful whichneighbourhoods you drive around in. Above all, never take candy fromstrangers (or open unsolicited file attachments).Joey Lindstrom
|
