At 10:11 AM -0800 1/7/02, Nelson Minar wrote: >I'm writing because I find it interesting that some folks here *like* >the idea of their ISP filtering content. I find that surprising! I >assume it's motivated by the huge problem of viruses, but wouldn't it >be better to fix the clients, not the pipes? There are a whole lot of >risks in a network layer suddenly doing application-layer things.
There is one case where it makes sense for people to have their ISPs filter packets, and this is in response to a denial of service (DOS) attack. If you are connected to your ISP thru a link which is slow compared with the main internet (e.g. connected thru DSL or a T1), then a DOS attack can saturate the link between you and your ISP. The only solution I know of is to have your ISP filter the offending packets before they hit your link. A number of people have used this technique to remain "on the air" in the midst of a DOS attack. Cheers - Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | The principal effect of| Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | DMCA/SDMI is to prevent| 16345 Englewood Ave. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | fair use. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]