This would suck, Cable Labs wants to revise/eliminate NAT

[bonkers325]

sucks big donkey if they do it

Link

This article from CED Magazine describes a plan by Cable Labs (the cable modem industry research arm) to control use of NAT (network address translation) in wired and wireless hubs. For the less technical, it is the technology present in many home networking hubs that allows multiple PCs to share a single IP address. It is commonly used by customers of cable and DSL providers who only provide one IP address per customer without an extra charge. The Cable Labs' revision of NAT, called CAT, would allow cable companies to count how many devices you have connected to your hub, and charge you for each connected device.

 

[Soccerman]

umm, don't big companies use NAT too? my school shares one IP (I don't know using what method though, I know it's not port forwarding).. they can't get rid of NAT AFAIK..

 

[splice]

mmm multiple computers sharing one IP really shouldn't matter. You pay for the bandwidth and you should be able to use as much or as little as you want.... This CAT idea sucks! There is no way it can be enfoced either... just get a front end linux box and you are all set, CAT to the modem and NAT to the LAN, looks like one pc, don't it?

 

[Yoshi]

As if they did not see this problem coming a mile away.

 

[Agent004]

Don't you see, it's just another way of company charging you more... per number of user, like software licenses.

 

[St1mpy]

I don't see any way they can eliminate NAT - it's a defacto standard - there are way too many devices out there that use NAT.

 

[IsOs]

In a usual home cable service, you don't pay for the bandwith but per connections. The cable company can monitor the amount of data flowing through a connections. The problem for them is that unless your connections suddenly use a big chunk of the bandwith, no alarm will sound. If you are using NAT, and the computers are minimally using the internet then it's difficult to tell whether you have violated your TOS agreement.

I have no problem for the cable company to police the use of the technology if it indeed being use to connect multi home computers (entire neighborhood). But if you have 3 home computers and 2 laptops, you should not be limited as to how you want to use the connections. The cable provider should consider that if they insist on the customer not being able to hook up these computers inside one home, these customers will move to DSL. With the competition going on, most DSL providers are not charging anymore for over the bandwidth usage. The reason is that there are new ISP that offers unlimited bandwidth



<< At the very least, cable MSOs involved in CableHome want a counting mechanism, with parameters set by them, that specifies a maximum number of connected devices. Until then, all indicators point to DOCSIS 1.1, which includes methods to monitor bandwidth consumption (how much is used per customer) and speed (who?s bursting at what rates).

Unquestionably, the ability to ?see? connected devices makes troubleshooting and customer care somewhat easier. It will also put some enforceability into what, today, is an unintentional honor system, in terms of IP address and resultant bandwidth sharing. >>



Technology already exists to count these unknown connections. All the ISP providers have to do is tie it in their home page area or email server. Do you realized that your email usually record how it get transferred?

 

[JellyBaby]

Restricting customer choice and overcharging them is a great way to do business. Since I don't even know who Cable Crabs is, I doubt this idea will last much longer than a fart in the breeze.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

<< Restricting customer choice and overcharging them is a great way to do business. Since I don't even know who Cable Crabs is, I doubt this idea will last much longer than a fart in the breeze. >>

afaik, whatever cable labs says, goes.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

so in the future, some ISPs will release a breakthrought internet device for online, you must use this device to get online, you can't use computer to get online if you want to use such ISPs, this device is for single-user only, it checks your fingerprint and iris, you can't let your family members or friends to use, everybody must get their own machine - pay multiple monthly fee for additional users, and the device is for rental only, you've to return it when you cancel your service.