Help

[David Gillett]

  It's not *us* you need to convince.

  While in one sense a cable-modem connection is "always on", I bet many of
them sit unused for significant blocks of time, and in fact I can't think of
any other rationale for running DHCP on such a service.
  Several of my VPN users, however, launch the client first thing in the
morning and leave it running all day; even if they're not really talking to
our servers, there's a constant "heartbeat" flow over the link.
  To marginal/oversubscribed cable operators, this looks just like running a
server on a dialup by never hanging up the phone.  People who tried that
quickly learned that their "unlimited use" dialup plans came with some
limitations....

  Comcast's "home" cablemodem AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) forbids a whole
range of business uses of the service.  The only thing that distinguishes
VPN use on that list is that it's relatively simple for them to
pre-emptively block it (rather than trying to *detect* it), and so they do.

David Gillett
Senior Network Engineer
(650) 701-2702
Niku Corp. "Transforming the Service Economy"



-----Original Message-----
From: VPN Mailing List [mailto:VPN at SECURITYFOCUS.COM]On Behalf Of Joseph
S D Yao
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 2:01 PM
To: VPN at SECURITYFOCUS.COM
Subject: Re: Help


On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 02:45:08PM -0500, Carl E. Mankinen wrote:
> Home accounts are for "personal" use. Not for always-on VPN "business"
use.

That may be, although I have yet to see this specified in an ISP's
agreement.  ISTM this is being tacked on.  Contracts being changed
unilaterally leads to a lack of trust and ultimately a loss of revenue.

> If businesses wish to have employees telecommute, they must get business
accounts to do it.

Also fine.

What about my buddies and I who just want to have a nice little chat
about our hobbies without the possibility of anyone listening in?  This
was probably a wider use of FreeSWAN than any business use, at first.

--
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
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