Yesterday, Karl J. Runge gleaned this insight:
> On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Benjamin Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Doesn't seem too likely, since this would require more horsepower in the
> > head-end equipment,
>
> Oh I don't know. It should likely be done in hardware at the head-end
> as it is done in the cable modem in the cable modem's chip(s).
>
> I imagine (over time at least) the cost difference between:
>
> DOCSIS compliant head-end equipment
> and
> DOCSIS compliant head-end equipment except for the
> Baseline Privacy component of DOCSIS
> could be pretty small.
I worked for a company (LanCity/Bay Networks/Arris Interactive) that was
very involved in creating the DOCSIS standard, and sells DOCSIS-cpmpliant
equipment. AFAIK, they do not ship any DOCSIS-compliant equipment without
privacy components of DOCSIS...
>
> > and it would likely increase their support costs, too.
> THIS is the reason they don't do it. I doubt customers even realize
> this even possible or is an issue.
I disagree... largely I think it's because the original LanCity LCP and
similar CMs are by-and-large what is still in the field, and
replacing/upgrading them in short order is cost-prohibitive... this is a
capital expense, not a support expense. But it IS coming down the pipe...
> It would be nice if Mediaone turned on DOCSIS encryption just for
> tidiness sake and so one could rule out subnet sniffing. But I agree
> with Ben that this is far from the whole story and you had best use
> end-to-end encryption if you really need privacy.
As mentioned above, most installations still are not using
DOCSIS-compliant hardware, due to the newness of the standard and the cost
of upgrading existing installations. Since that's the case, encryption at
the physical layer is currently a pipe dream. When DOCSIS equipment
becomes commonplace, you'll see more of this.
--
You know that everytime I try to go where I really want to be,
It's already where I am, cuz I'm already there...
---------------------------------------------------------------
Derek D. Martin | Unix/Linux Geek
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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