Couple of very quick & simple questions re DSL

[Ken90630]

Do any of you guys know if a DSL connection is "always on," like a cable connection is? Or if you have DSL, are you only "connected" to the Web when you launch a browser (like with dial-up)?

And does DSL use a regular phone line? Or does the phone company come out and install a different wall jack and a different kind of phone line?

 

[JBDan]

DSL is alWAYS ON! It uses the same copper wire your land line does but utilizes a different frequency over that same copper wire than your vocal phone line.

 

[Gerbil333]

It's always on, but some ISPs use PPPoe, which requires you to sign on.

I have SBC 1500/384kbps DSL, and they use PPPoe. However, my $10 Netgear MR814 router takes care of the PPPoe so that my connection is on 24x7 and available to all 5 computers in the house. No need to sign on. Even better, I can plug any computer into the router (or use a wireless card) and instantly be on the net. No installation or configuring is required. From the moment I install Windows XP, I have a connection.

 

[Ken90630]

Interesting. Thanks for the info, guys. I really appreciate it.

I was actually hoping that DSL wouldn't always be on like a cable connection. I have a friend who's not very security savvy, and he's thinking of going from dial-up to either DSL or cable. I was hopin' DSL would make for a nice "in-between" solution in terms of faster speed but without the always-on vulnerability of cable. So I guess if he goes this route, I'm gonna have to implement some security for him that's beyond just his Norton software firewall.

Gerbil, do you find that your router, coupled with whatever software firewall you're presumably running, is an effective barrier against the bad guys? Some routers are better than others at this sort of thing. I have a pretty good solution in mind, so I don't need a full security primer here, but I'd be interested in knowing about your success in this area. What you describe sounds like a pretty nice setup, if it's secure. 🙂

 

[kranky]

It's always on, but I don't see the reason for concern. If the PC is off, no worries. Or, you can use ZoneAlarm and if you want to leave the PC on just use ZA to disable all network activity when you want to.

DSL uses a regular phone line but you have to install filters (some will be included with the equipment supplied by the phone company) on the jacks where you have telephones.

 

[Ken90630]

It's always on, but I don't see the reason for concern. If the PC is off, no worries. Or, you can use ZoneAlarm and if you want to leave the PC on just use ZA to disable all network activity when you want to.

Thanks, Kranky. My friend has a Norton firewall instead of ZA, unfortunately. It has a "Block Traffic" feature which I assume is comparable to ZA's "disable all network activity." This is probably a stupid thought, but I've been wondering if the "block traffic" feature somehow 'un-stealths' the computer on the Web. When I had a Norton firewall on my machine, I used that "block traffic" feature and it seemed like my firewall logs showed a lot more intrusion attempts than when I had the feature off (and traffic allowed). The firewall was still enabled in both instances, but that's what I experienced.

I also had several times where my Norton icons in the system tray would just disappear right outta the tray (whether traffic was enabled or not). I kid you not. I'm typing away, I look down, and they'd vanished. :Q And when I clicked on the big Norton icon on the desktop and checked the status of the programs, they said, "Tampered" on all of them. :shocked: I had to uninstall and reinstall the whole Norton Security package about 4 times (each time that happened). Grrrrr :

 

[wseyller]

There's an easy way to disable your internet if the modem is connected to the ethernet card. Just go to the network connections in control panel and find your network card icon. Right click on the icon and send a shortcut to the desktop. You now have an icon on your desktop, then you can right click on it anytime to enable or disable it.

 

[GfW]

Gerbil is right ... some ISPs require you to dial in the way you would with a 56K modem. I am with Bell Canada DSL and I must dial in when I want to access the Internet. It only takes a few seconds but it is a few seconds more than when I had cable and only had to open my browser to connect.

 

[AluminumStudios]

I think you should choose your broadand based on price, speed, and availability. All methods of connecting to the net pose an equal security hazard.

That being said hack attempts, worms, etc., come in all of the time, so the best answer to security is a firewall.

You sound kind of new to firewalls Ken90630 so please don't take this basic explanation is an insult, but a firewall basically prevents your machine from answering an externally initiated connection. If your computer ignores malformed commands, etc., sent to it by worms and hackers then they can't compromise you as easily.

That being said there are quite a few free and cheap firewalls - Windows XP Service Pack 2 comes with a firewall, Sygate Personal Firewall (my favorite), Zone Alarm, etc. Of course software firewalls are configurable to allow some externally initiated connections because this is required for some protocols and software to work - such as P2P software.

A lot of home broadband routers in addition to logging into DSL's PPPoE (if your ISP uses that authentication for DSL) will also provide firewall functionality. Also, in many cases those routers take the IP address that your ISP assigns and gives your connected PCs "non-routable" internal IP addresses making it almost impossible for your machine to be directed accessed by an externally initiated connection - so this adds a layer of security.

No go forth and pick the fastest, best broadband you can 🙂 One of broadband's great benefits is that it's always on.

 

[Ken90630]

You sound kind of new to firewalls Ken90630 so please don't take this basic explanation is an insult, ...

Thanks. I'm not insulted at all. I'm still very much in the "learning" phase of some aspects of computing. This is obviously one of them. 😀

I appreciate all you guys' feedback. Very helpful. 🙂

BTW, I've never understood how a cracker can do ping tests or port scans when someone is on a dial-up connection. They can't tap into a person's phone line, can they? (At least not very easily, I wouldn't think.) Hypothetically, with a direct phone line connection from, say, my computer to one Web site, how could the "bad guys" get in? If I don't let them in via e-mail malware, and I don't click on a bad Web site misusing Active X controls to do dastardly deeds :evil:, how would my dial-up-connected computer get breached? (I actually have Comcast broadband myself, so I'm speaking hypothetically.)

And no, I'm not asking 'cuz I wanna become a bad guy. Heh heh. I'm just curious how this happens to people, 'cuz my mom is gonna go back on dial-up soon and I'd just like to understand the vulnerability a bit better.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Ken90630
BTW, I've never understood how a cracker can do ping tests or port scans when someone is on a dial-up connection. They can't tap into a person's phone line, can they? (At least not very easily, I wouldn't think.) Hypothetically, with a direct phone line connection from, say, my computer to one Web site, how could the "bad guys" get in? If I don't let them in via e-mail malware, and I don't click on a bad Web site misusing Active X controls to do dastardly deeds :evil:, how would my dial-up-connected computer get breached? (I actually have Comcast broadband myself, so I'm speaking hypothetically.)

No, they can't tap phone lines, but that's not necessary. Once your dialup connection is established, you are connected to the Internet just like people who have DSL, cable, T1 lines, etc. You have an IP address and therefore you can be pinged or port scanned. There's nothing different about connecting via dialup in that sense.

You don't have a "direct phone line connection" from your computer to one web site. You are just one more computer hanging off the Internet. The only way you could have a direct connection (in theory) is if you had to dial up a different phone number for each web site you wanted to visit.