Re: Cable Vs. DSL

[Brian Eckman <eckman () umn edu>]

> NAT basically provides you with about as much security as your mp3 
> player, which is to say none at all.  

Now that is just absurd. His mp3 player probably has several security 
flaws like being tricked into executing file types it has no business 
knowing about or simple old-fashioned buffer overflows. ;-)

You mean to tell me, you take the average cable modem luser with file 
sharing turned on and administrator with no password, and you put them 
behind a router with NAT and there is *no* benefit? I don't know about 
your router but mine was configured out of the box to not listed on 
*any* port by default, allowing me if I choose to do so to open SSH, 
Web, etc. Mine certainly isn't letting people login to my Windows (or 
other) machines remotely.

Hypothetical situation. I rebuild my Windows box at home and give it no 
Administrator password. Try logging into my Windows box via my router's 
IP address. Then, try logging into it using 192.168.101.101. Take my 
router out and put the box on the net, and you'd have no problem logging 
in it then, right?

No single layer of security will protect you from everything. However, 
NAT provides another layer of security that *is* beneficial to most people.

--
Brian Eckman
Security Analyst
OIT Security and Assurance
University of Minnesota
612-626-7737

"There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who
understand binary and those who don't."


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