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Remotely Counting Machines Behind A NAT Box

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-knew-this-was-coming dept.

Overtone writes "Steve Bellovin of AT&T Labs Research has published a paper showing how to remotely count the number of machines hiding behind a NAT box (in IMW 2002, the Second Internet Measurement Workshop). Your friendly DSL or cable broadband provider could implement this technique to enforce their single-machine license clause. Bellovin explains how to change the NAT software to defeat the measurement scheme, but the fix is complicated and unlikely to appear in commercial home gateways anytime soon."

2 of 574 comments (clear)

  1. ISP enforcement by Rat+Tank · · Score: -1, Troll

    Why is everyone treating this like it's a bad thing? Finally, somebody has done the research that will allow ISPs to enforce the contract that you legally agreed to, and stop geeks stealing their bandwidth. Yes, you can come up with as many rationalisations as you want, but at the heart of it, it is still stealing and contract violation.

  2. Re:trying to crack down on reselling by Kevitt · · Score: 0, Troll

    because the only purpose for a high speed connection is for sharing [censored by the RIAA and MPAA] across the net

    Oh of course! umm... you know better than that! Forget about gaming? Forget about videoconferencing? Forget about VoIP?

    Need I go on?