Efficient → Great thread!

I had fun playing with my Speedstream 5260....

I like the way it tracks it's uptime...mine was up for 33 days until I rebooted it (switch half to full duplex).

What I want to know is...if someone knows your modem's hostname (default: SpeedStream) couldn't they theoretically telnet into your DSL modem from the greater Internet and fuck shit up?? Hmmm....beware of Hackers!!!

Maybe I should password my Speedstream....?

Since the IP address you can get in on is only 10.0.0.2, that is only available from the inside of your network..
So I (the hacker) know that your speedstream is 10.0.0.2, and so is everyone elses, the info is useless to me.. 10.x.x.x does not get routed by anyone.
Hostnames are just a layer over IP addresses, so thats no issue..

my 5260 is connected to a router so I imagine before telnet
I would need to connect modem directly to NIC, right?
is there substantive improvement by going full duplex?
so happens my NIC supports full duplex but if the change
in modem configuration yields little in performance, maybe
it's not worth the hassle...
--
"in flante delicto"

never mind

[text was edited by author 2000-10-05 01:41:50]

A hub is a "dumb", layer 1 device. All it does is link physically link computers connected to it together, it does not care about mac addresses, or any protocols. If one machine sends a packet it goes to every machine connected to the hub regardless of their settings. The machine will then read the higher level protocol headers and trailers to determine whether it will accept the packet. Using a hub is like connecting all the computers on one cable.

Switches, on the other hand, are a layer 2 device, meaning that they read mac addresses. If computer A wants to send to computer B, the switch will read the mac address and give the two machines a dedicated connection (not shared), so A's packet would not go to C, D, and E, as it would on a hub. This dedicated connection allows for Full duplex communication, there is not a hub that can do full duplex. You need a switch or a router to do that. A router is a level 3 device, by the way, which means it handles IP addresses.