Makes sense. Does it also make sense to police what your customers put (or don't put) on the network? Not everybody plays nice. Call centers send blank or no idenitfying info so their targets can't find out who they are. What if they started sending invalid numbers to make their targets more likely to answer?
Of course, if the provider decides to start preventing the bad guys are sending crappy data, the bad guys will find a new provider. That's why it's intentional, because it helps the bottom line:)
We see the same thing in the IP world with spammers.
...that this type of spoofing is so easy. I work for a small ILEC. We got an Asterisk box almost a year ago to play a bit with VoIP. The caller ID spoofing was easy to do, and fun for awhile. Out of curiosity, I tried to figure out how to secure the switch enough to prevent this type of spoofing from happening. With less than a year of experience in circuit switching, the manual, and about 30 minutes, I managed to limit the spoofable numbers to the range of DID numbers actually assigned to that PRI. In other words, no more spoofing. It amazes me that more providers don't implement this type of security.
Alot of gear operating in the 2.4GHz area uses the _whole spectrum_. Western Mux (Proxim?) makes Wireless T1 gear which seems to be very popular for backhauling traffic from Cellular sites. Power output is regulated, but not spectral efficiency.
Roll over to ebay and search for a Portmaster 2e. I work for a small ISP that still uses one of these... we use the spare ports for console access. I saw a few on ebay for $100.
...blocking based on geographic location is borderline political statement. My company has lost customers over this. We eventually relaxed our policies and the spam flows freely.
One thing I noticed is that alot of these asian spammers use IP numbers without reverse DNS. This is a no-no, and any competent sysadmin will have reverse DNS for all hosts (especially important ones like mail exchangers). We implemented that yesterday and have seen a dramatic reduction. Most of the denies are from the 210 and 211 prefixes, which are delegated by APNIC. Gofigure:)
That's subtle! That's the first idea I've seen posted that would have had me stumped. It's really easy to fix (run a dns server locally or use a different one), but it's probably not obvious what's going on unless you're actually looking for it. "Gee, DNS queries work from the router, but not from the clients..."
I just feel that it's the right of the owner of the establishment to make that decision, not the right of the government (city or otherwise). If the owner beleives that smoking in the establishment will hurt business, it's his/her right to decide not to allow smoking. Similarly, if I owned an arcade that catered exclusivley to people who disliked violent games, I could simply not buy those games. Let _me_ choose, don't choose _for_ me.
Actually, rain has little effect in that frequency range... in fact, an effect known as "rain scatter" can actually amplify the signal. Snow may be a different story (we don't get much down here:). We have had problems in the 2.4Ghz spectrum with fog, but only with long (5+ mile) links. Another advantage to MMDS is since it's licensed, you can use higher power signals (as opposed to 1 watt in the 2.4Ghz band). The CATV provider here is pushing 20 watts, and they've never had issues with rain and the less than rare hail storms here.
MMDS is a superior wireless technology that has been around for over 30 years. It's currently used mostly for wireless analog CATV service, but all sorts of manufacturers (ie Cisco) are making gear that uses this spectrum. It sits right above that unlicensed 2.4Ghz stuff at 2.5Ghz. MMDS BTA's are generally include a 35-mile radius from a central POP.
We're a small rural ISP in New Mexico and we're looking at teaming up with an MMDS CATV provider to combine our services to provide digital cable along with digital wireless internet at speeds up to 45mbits/s. There is also gear to do VoIP, so we can eventually team up with a CLEC or become one and provide dialtone as well. All over the same pipe. Neat eh?
No, this is POP3 we're talking about. The only thing the client does is issue some commands to download mail. The messages are generated by the sender.
You might look into MMDS technology. It works well at long distances, especialy if you're just using a point to point link. Another bonus is that the FCC carved out a large chunk of MMDS spectrum specificaly for educational institutions. Alot of school districts hold licences for this spectrum and don't even use it.
So say I've found a security hole in a web site that I happen to pay to get access to... I look around a bit and find my credit card and contact information. What to I do then? Do I report the issue and get prosecuted, or do I not report the issue and leave my personal information open for anybody to see?
...especially to me. Since I started filtering based on the RBL database (RSS and DUL as well), the amount of SPAM in my inbox at the end of the day is significantly reduced. I don't take as many SPAM-related calls and SPAM-related emails either. Granted, I don't use the RBL's bgp-based service to filter all traffic from banned sites, so my users were still able to see macromedia's site. All in all, the RBL system has benefited myself and my customers. It's certainly classified as "stealth filtering" in that it's completely transparent, but my customers made demands that only the RBL database could fill.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
A Celeron is much more optimized for that sort of thing. MMX for example. Not to mention the greater floating point capacity. Comparing a P5 and a Celeron on a mhz to mhz basis doesn't make sense.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
What about lugging one of these to a lan party? The water must make the case a bit heavier and would it leak if it tipped over in the trunk? That would suck.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
... masterminded by Microsoft! They get the RIAA to sue Napster and force them to protect the copyrights of the songs traded on their service. When the RIAA wins and Napster can't cope, they turn to Microsoft and strike a deal to use Microsoft's anti-piracy technology. Coincidence? No, conspiracy.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
I'm in a similar situation. Australia has lots of rural areas, I'm sure. Are you looking at providing service in a rural market? I work for the largest ISP in this area, and we're not that big at all. 5 employees. The telco situation here prevents us from even providing ISDN, and DSL is completely out of the question. We have recently deployed a wireless network, and we're doing quite well. People are banging the door down for broadband:)
Above all though, to be successful, you need the best customer service. People are tired of major companies' crappy access and lack of good customer support. The company I work for is founded on good customer service. Our customers pay for it and expect it.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
This is an absurdly long thread, but I'll put it to rest. Leave the smoking/non-smoking choice up to the restraunt/business owner for crying out loud. If you don't like it, don't eat/shop there. Laws forbidding smoking in any place are simply absurd.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
There are lots of things you can do really. APC and others make products that allow you to power cycle machines remotely. I've seen 1u boxes with a bunch of serial ports that allow you to access consoles remotely. You could also build a box with a bunch of serial ports and connect consoles that way. I have various networking devices connected to serial ports on a FreeBSD box, and it's great to console into them when you hosed something:)
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
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Makes sense. Does it also make sense to police what your customers put (or don't put) on the network? Not everybody plays nice. Call centers send blank or no idenitfying info so their targets can't find out who they are. What if they started sending invalid numbers to make their targets more likely to answer?
:)
Of course, if the provider decides to start preventing the bad guys are sending crappy data, the bad guys will find a new provider. That's why it's intentional, because it helps the bottom line
We see the same thing in the IP world with spammers.
...that this type of spoofing is so easy. I work for a small ILEC. We got an Asterisk box almost a year ago to play a bit with VoIP. The caller ID spoofing was easy to do, and fun for awhile. Out of curiosity, I tried to figure out how to secure the switch enough to prevent this type of spoofing from happening. With less than a year of experience in circuit switching, the manual, and about 30 minutes, I managed to limit the spoofable numbers to the range of DID numbers actually assigned to that PRI. In other words, no more spoofing. It amazes me that more providers don't implement this type of security.
Alot of gear operating in the 2.4GHz area uses the _whole spectrum_. Western Mux (Proxim?) makes Wireless T1 gear which seems to be very popular for backhauling traffic from Cellular sites. Power output is regulated, but not spectral efficiency.
Roll over to ebay and search for a Portmaster 2e. I work for a small ISP that still uses one of these... we use the spare ports for console access. I saw a few on ebay for $100.
...blocking based on geographic location is borderline political statement. My company has lost customers over this. We eventually relaxed our policies and the spam flows freely.
:)
One thing I noticed is that alot of these asian spammers use IP numbers without reverse DNS. This is a no-no, and any competent sysadmin will have reverse DNS for all hosts (especially important ones like mail exchangers). We implemented that yesterday and have seen a dramatic reduction. Most of the denies are from the 210 and 211 prefixes, which are delegated by APNIC. Gofigure
That's subtle! That's the first idea I've seen posted that would have had me stumped. It's really easy to fix (run a dns server locally or use a different one), but it's probably not obvious what's going on unless you're actually looking for it. "Gee, DNS queries work from the router, but not from the clients..."
Nice.
"Unless I leave"
You always have a choice.
I just feel that it's the right of the owner of the establishment to make that decision, not the right of the government (city or otherwise). If the owner beleives that smoking in the establishment will hurt business, it's his/her right to decide not to allow smoking. Similarly, if I owned an arcade that catered exclusivley to people who disliked violent games, I could simply not buy those games. Let _me_ choose, don't choose _for_ me.
...is banned in many citys by city ordinance. In restaurants, bars, etc. Isn't this sort of the same thing?
Actually, rain has little effect in that frequency range... in fact, an effect known as "rain scatter" can actually amplify the signal. Snow may be a different story (we don't get much down here :). We have had problems in the 2.4Ghz spectrum with fog, but only with long (5+ mile) links. Another advantage to MMDS is since it's licensed, you can use higher power signals (as opposed to 1 watt in the 2.4Ghz band). The CATV provider here is pushing 20 watts, and they've never had issues with rain and the less than rare hail storms here.
MMDS is a superior wireless technology that has been around for over 30 years. It's currently used mostly for wireless analog CATV service, but all sorts of manufacturers (ie Cisco) are making gear that uses this spectrum. It sits right above that unlicensed 2.4Ghz stuff at 2.5Ghz. MMDS BTA's are generally include a 35-mile radius from a central POP.
We're a small rural ISP in New Mexico and we're looking at teaming up with an MMDS CATV provider to combine our services to provide digital cable along with digital wireless internet at speeds up to 45mbits/s. There is also gear to do VoIP, so we can eventually team up with a CLEC or become one and provide dialtone as well. All over the same pipe. Neat eh?
No, this is POP3 we're talking about. The only thing the client does is issue some commands to download mail. The messages are generated by the sender.
You might look into MMDS technology. It works well at long distances, especialy if you're just using a point to point link. Another bonus is that the FCC carved out a large chunk of MMDS spectrum specificaly for educational institutions. Alot of school districts hold licences for this spectrum and don't even use it.
So say I've found a security hole in a web site that I happen to pay to get access to... I look around a bit and find my credit card and contact information. What to I do then? Do I report the issue and get prosecuted, or do I not report the issue and leave my personal information open for anybody to see?
This is a crappy situation.
This would rock for controlling your mp3 box in the trunk of the car....
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
...especially to me. Since I started filtering based on the RBL database (RSS and DUL as well), the amount of SPAM in my inbox at the end of the day is significantly reduced. I don't take as many SPAM-related calls and SPAM-related emails either. Granted, I don't use the RBL's bgp-based service to filter all traffic from banned sites, so my users were still able to see macromedia's site. All in all, the RBL system has benefited myself and my customers. It's certainly classified as "stealth filtering" in that it's completely transparent, but my customers made demands that only the RBL database could fill.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
A Celeron is much more optimized for that sort of thing. MMX for example. Not to mention the greater floating point capacity. Comparing a P5 and a Celeron on a mhz to mhz basis doesn't make sense.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
What about lugging one of these to a lan party? The water must make the case a bit heavier and would it leak if it tipped over in the trunk? That would suck.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
... masterminded by Microsoft! They get the RIAA to sue Napster and force them to protect the copyrights of the songs traded on their service. When the RIAA wins and Napster can't cope, they turn to Microsoft and strike a deal to use Microsoft's anti-piracy technology. Coincidence? No, conspiracy.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
I'm in a similar situation. Australia has lots of rural areas, I'm sure. Are you looking at providing service in a rural market? I work for the largest ISP in this area, and we're not that big at all. 5 employees. The telco situation here prevents us from even providing ISDN, and DSL is completely out of the question. We have recently deployed a wireless network, and we're doing quite well. People are banging the door down for broadband :)
Above all though, to be successful, you need the best customer service. People are tired of major companies' crappy access and lack of good customer support. The company I work for is founded on good customer service. Our customers pay for it and expect it.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Or even worse, client A subsequently attempts to connect to server C behind the NAT. What then?
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
This is an absurdly long thread, but I'll put it to rest. Leave the smoking/non-smoking choice up to the restraunt/business owner for crying out loud. If you don't like it, don't eat/shop there. Laws forbidding smoking in any place are simply absurd.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
There are lots of things you can do really. APC and others make products that allow you to power cycle machines remotely. I've seen 1u boxes with a bunch of serial ports that allow you to access consoles remotely. You could also build a box with a bunch of serial ports and connect consoles that way. I have various networking devices connected to serial ports on a FreeBSD box, and it's great to console into them when you hosed something :)
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
This post is a very late and since this is slashdot, it probably won't be read, but...
What about chess? Or, if you're looking for something that fewer people will understand, some variant? Check out chessvariants.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Umm... doesn't mean that your birthday would fall on the same day of the week every year? That would suck for about 5/7 of the population :)
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.