DSL why Password?

[JackMDS]

May be a dumb question?

I understand that when using a Cable Internet service, the cable ISP needs protection since the Internet signal is on the whole cables network, and they need people to pay for the service.

Why DSL need ID and Password? It comes on my personal Telphone line, no one can get DSL on a telephone line that is not connected by the Telco to the Internet.

Do I miss something?

 

[potz]

i guess they don't want you using more than 1 session at a time and therefore taking more than 1 ip at a time?

 

[Iconizer]

Maybe you do not pay your bills and they want to disconnect you time to time !

They need it so they can tell who is who, it is more a security problem.
And they (phreakers) can still borrow your line if they want to.

 

[Ender78]

PPP is used for authentication. Since most providers are using PPPoE or PPPoATM they need to assign you a username or password. PPP makes user account management much easier (its easier to find if a user is really logged in for example)