[11494] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Re[2]: Two-way Internet service from Continental Cable?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Karl Denninger)
Mon Apr 4 15:19:59 1994
From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
To: NORDLUND@ccstaff.cc.ukans.edu (Dave Nordlund)
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 10:00:28 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: karl@mcs.com, steve@nsf.gov, com-priv@psi.com, 0003858921@mcimail.com
In-Reply-To: <17AA971DA9@ccstaff.cc.ukans.edu> from "Dave Nordlund" at Apr 4, 94 09:49:25 am
> > >
> > > >If it's a shared medium, how difficult is it for a moderately capable one
> > > >of PSI's customers on the cable to listen in on what some other customers
> > > >are saying? Presumably it's slightly more difficult than hanging a
> > > >Sniffer on a vampire tap, but I wonder what safety mechanisms PSI has to
> > > >prevent their customers from wiretapping each other?
> > >
> > > Steve, it is soooo simple to turn a PC into an network analyser. I do it
> > > all the time at work. A number of commercial packages for ~$1K or PD
> > > packages do it...
> > >
> > > Bob
> > >
> >
> > The level of granularity in this case is the segment between backbone links
> > in the Cable TV plant.
> >
> > Knowing how these things are built (I used to work for a company that made
> > satcom earth station gear and had close contact with these folks) I'd say
> > that you could tap roughly 100-200 houses in most areas easily - and in
> > especially high density areas probably more.
> >
> Here is a different idea. Every home must have an RF modem to the cable.
> If the home workstation has an Enet card the Cable box could contain the
> RF Modem, DCE Enet chips and a simple processor doing normal MAC level
> briding. That means that you at your work station would ONLY see the
> packets addressed to you! No snooping! I think this box could be built
> for under $300 in quantity. The cable company would probably rent it for
> $15 per month or so.
Now the cable company needs to have different RF channels for each
subscriber, and different modems, and different distribution amps.
What you gain is more or less guaranteed bandwidth. What you lose is any
semblance of reasonable cost for the service.
These "500kbps to the house!" schemes are all relatively affordable because
you're sharing major parts of the infrastructure. If that disappears so
does any idea of cost sharing, and thus a reasonable pricing structure.
--
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