On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Fraser Campbell wrote:

On December 20, 2003 01:15 am, Justin Zygmont wrote:

...

Just a thought about VPN's and a hope to get back on topic to fun linux things, I was wondering if anyone knows why an encrypted VPN is so important using a phone line when it's usually just a point to point link with no chance of interception?

If you're talking about a private phone line dialed onto a private network then I think you have to be doing some pretty serious data pushing to worry about encryption ... if you're sending credit card numbers, tax records or business secrets -- and if it's possible that someone would know that you're doing it and find value in the information -- then it's probably worth encrypting for the little overhead involved (cpu utilization for vpn-type encryption at modem speeds would be a pittance). If your phone line usage is sporadic and doesn't involve much sensitive information then I wouldn't see the value in encryption (though I suppose with such low overhead, why not?).

If however you're phone line is connecting to the Internet then encryption becomes more important. Let's say your data travels through 10 different networks (pretty common) to get to it's destination, anyone with admin access (or at least wire access) can potentially intercept your traffic. If you care about your traffic being private at all some encryption just makes sense ... encryption can be at the app layer (ssh, https, secure imap, etc.), at the network layer (vpn) or at both the app and network layer.

If by bringing up phone lines you're meaning the old argument of cable being shared versus DSL not being shared then I don't agree that any distinction needs to be made in that respect ... either way you're connecting to the share network known as the Internet. Also, last I had Rogers, it appears that my cable connection was switched (I only saw my own traffic and broadcast traffic.

I see, that clears things up quite a bit. -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml