AT&T @home questions...

[Paul Donahue]

if they come out and install the service let them do it on a windows machine so as to avoid the conflict of them knowing you're gonna put up a linux box. Then once they leave it's as easy as plugging in the network values into your linux box, then plugging that into the cable modem. Give the cable modem a reboot and all should be good. If they've gotten smarter since I last dealt with the @home people, you might have to use the same nic that they used for the initial setup. (only in the case if they hardcode the mac address in the modem. they never used to) Then don't attract attention to yourself by leaving your box open for just anyone to "walk into" secure it down. Only leave the ports open that are absolutely necessary for your operation. Plus if you plan on using your linux box to do IP masquerading, I think that is technically against their policy, but with the dawn of all of the DSL/Cable modem "routers/gateways" put out by companies such as linksys, this is almost an accepted method nowdays. I've heard mixed things across different cable modem services as far as port blocking goes. Mine (TCIMET) doesn't block anything, however it's only offered in 3 cities and is expen$ive! @home for sure does not block ssh, around here and I know they don't block ssh or UDP 500 out east. Anyways, I hope this makes sense as I've been up for about 5 minutes, and hope it gives you some useful information.

Best of luck!


Paul Donahue
Computer Scientist
Computer/Network Technician
Michigan State University
http://www.pdonahue.com/
ICQ: 1624723   Phone: 517-204-6047

>>> Matt Graham <danceswithcrows@usa.net> 08/22/01 11:21PM >>>
So everyone's favorite evil phone company is now offering cable-modem
service to the area where I live. I know from scuttlebutt on Usenet and
the thread started at
http://www.egr.msu.edu/archives/public/linux-user/2001-June/004173.html 
that people can get the service to work under Linux reasonably easily. I
have perused the company's website, checked out their amazingly
content-free FAQ, and their amazingly weasel-worded TOS. (Say, what is
the legalese for "All your soul are belong to us"?)
 
Anyway, the TOS does not say "You are not allowed to run an
HTTP/FTP/SMTP/ SSH login server". Am I correct in assuming that @home
subscribers are allowed to run these services? (I know a couple of
things about securing a machine, and will not run open relays,
globally-accessible NFS/SMB, telnetd, or really old versions of BIND
here.) The 128kbps upstream cap blows goats, but it's about 3x faster
than what I have now and I suppose I can live with it.  (Idiots.
Freenet/OpenNap/Gnutella show that people want to share stuff; even if
they threw out a bone like "Upstream: 128kbps to the Net at large,
768kbps to other @home users", they'd get more Clued and more k1dd13s
jumping on their bandwagon.)
 
Any comments/advice/howls of pain from those currently using @home from
AT&T are appreciated. 

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
"I backed up my brain to tape, but tar says the tape contains no data...."
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