I guess the bottom line is that landline phones are not going to disappear any time soon.
It makes sense to merge the public network (internet) with the cell phone network, especially if the voice data is all digital. At that point the only problem is linking the various services together. I think it's brilliant for local merchants to set up a WiFi hot spot. I'm not sure how many people would come to the store just to do that, but the annual fee has to be nearly all profit after the initial purchase of the equipment is recovered. The downside of hotspots is the security, or lack of it. I've read more than a few warnings about using airport hotspots, for example. I guess it's the same problem as is present in your home network. Just about anybody can listen in.
Almost all of the restaurants around here have WiFi access for the patrons. At many you have to buy something to get a receipt with that hours access code on it. Many of the motels only change the code once a day or sometimes only once a week, so it is not unusual to see a bunch of kids in cars parked alongside the road on the hill above them.
Had a friend who lived in an apartment building just behind a big restaurant, and their WiFi had a couple of permanent passcodes he got privy too. Customers still got the daily passcode on their receipt. Got by with it for like three years, hi hi. Now he is using a neighbors WiFi to get on the Internet, hi hi. He has different ways he gets them to tell him their passcode. Usually it will be because he goes over to their house to visit and just pushes the link-up button on their router. Other times he says he wants to show them something on-line on an account he belongs to.
I know one of my insurance brokers who I no longer use, asked for the code to get in to show me the results of some searches he was doing, and to fill out the forms we needed to change companies. I also know he gave it to a neighbor, which is one of the reasons he is no longer our broker, hi hi.
I did change the password to my router which causes a big pain in the arse because my wife has like 4 things she connects using WiFi, plus we have two Echo devices, the three connects to our TV, and my office Access Point. Everything you get used to using stops when you change the password, hi hi.
There is a simple solution to the router password situation. It requires that your router have "guest" access capabilities - most do. The guest account is limited in function by default and has it's own password. In some cases you can program all that the guest logins can or cannot do, such as access your printer or not. You can even program the hours at which the guest access is available. Handing out that guest passcode would not be a problem because your regular access would remain unencumbered and not need a passcode change every time your neighbor came for a visit.
I know people who are proud of the fact that they can steal Internet service. As you point out, however, it is a network exposed to the public. Anything on that network could easily be intercepted, not to mention potential infections you can pick up from a bad actor on that open connection. I guess a lot of people are not concerned about security issues, but it will bite them in the end.
I can't agree with you more about an insurance agent who would pass around privileged information such as passcodes. Who knows what else he is sharing with his clients.
That's right, and I forgot about the guest access portion of my routers.
I have guests turned off, and probably should not have done that and had a simple password for when folks visit.
I'm always getting after my wife for leaving her computer with social media sites sitting open and logged in all the time.
Her complaint was it takes so long to log into each one, and she uses about 4 or 5 of them when she is on the computer, which really she doesn't spend much time on, just leaves them open so she sees and hears if a message comes in.
What I finally did was set up her tabs in such a way, they would open when she starts the browser. But then she still had to log into each one. She does not save her log-in info on her computer. I do, but do log out and close everything, even my browser if I won't be at my desk. Don't know for sure if what she does is safe or unsafe, but seems unsafe to me.
Although this was long before the Internet.
I had two different people give me the name and mailing address for folks who owned cars between the age of 2 and 5 years old. One guy worked in the office of a car dealership, and the other guy owned a large auto mechanic shop.
I was selling a product similar to VX-6 at the time, to restore old tired car batteries.
Both the car dealership and the mechanic shop carried my product on a counter-top display I had made.
Now although the guy who worked at the dealership is who gave it to me, there was a requirement that besides my coupon for the product, I also included a blurb regarding a particular auto salesman at that dealership. It was made to look like it came from the dealership by that salesman who included the coupon as a gift. I didn't really like it because I had to use the more expensive first class mail and envelopes.
For the list I got from the mechanic shop, I used postcards which were printed like a coupon for my product, and included a discount for an oil change or tire rotation at his shop as well.
Eventually the guy who made VX-6 more or less wiped out my sales, because he supplied many more places than I did, mostly auto parts stores, where I had hit dealers and mechanic shops first.
After the battery rejuvinator I sold rain repellent and was just starting to make a good profit when Rain-X appeared on the scene. It seems the guys with the big bucks for advertising and distribution in fancy bottles always got the best of me before my products grew to become a staple in the industry.
At least my AZ-NO3 product grew to be sold worldwide and I'm still making and selling it after 25 years. But this too, technology is slowing eating away at my sales.
A totally locked down computer would not allow leaving any sessions open and live while the operator was away from the computer. The reasoning is simple. Anybody could come by and do whatever they want in that live session. That's a potential problem with every computer installation, but the risks are considerably lower at home. That is, they are lowered if you don't mind anybody else in the house viewing and/or manipulating your live session. Some spouses are very private and don't want their mates to see or do anything on THEIR computer, which does not seem to be the case in your home. Thus from a strict security point of view, it's a bad idea to leave a computer session open. In your home environment you got to ask if it really matters.
The laptop in my office requires login credentials when it is booting from a cold start. After that no more logins to the computer are necessary until it is shut down again. The tower with Windows 7 should but does not require any login credentials. It only gets turned off when I switch over to one of the Linux operating systems. All those Linux systems do require initial login credentials. Every social web site I visit regularly, including this one, has the Remember Me box checked. Thus no login is required next time around. One exception to that rule is Facebook. I never allow it to remain live and always need to login. I never use their token logins either. They claim it's safer not to use the traditional name/password, but it wasn't all that long ago when Facebook was hacked and all those login tokens were compromised. Thus, if I'm going to log into a web site it is always by use of my name and password just to eliminate the need for them to store any of my security tokens on their servers. Two factor authentication sites, like my banking account, do not allow a session to remain live unattended for more than a few minutes. The initial login there also requires the passcode they send to me vial e-mail or IM.
So, you see, I'm not seriously locking down anything because, well, this is my home. Only my wife and possibly the dog would have access, and that's OK with me. When I go on the road with the laptop, that's an entirely different story. I use a secure and encrypted operating system when I can - some places won't allow it because that's what hackers do. I use the Tor browser when possible, but most places won't allow that either. Which leaves me with Windows or Linux on a Stick. I prefer Linux on a Stick because it is effectively sandboxed on that USB memory card. Unfortunately, some things I do can only be done in Windows because they don't have a Linux version of what I'm doing. In that case each time I walk away from the laptop it gets a hard shut down. That means I must log in again the next time, but it also means the cleaning staff won't be able to get into my computer.
The use of mailing lists never was an issue until it was discovered what Facebook is doing with all that information it collects. You did essentially the same thing with your businesses, but the magnitude of your sales operation was nothing like the big social media that has access to literally billions of accounts. In fact most of your customers actually had a use for your products. We can't say that for all the crap Facebook throws at you. So now we have privacy issues and forced disclosures and cookie warnings and all kinds of things to protect the fictitious privacy we all think we have. You could lock down your computer so that no human can get at it without your authorization; those are not the people you need to be protecting yourself from. The people you freely give your personal information to just to use their service are the ones that need to be regulated and defended against.
Wow, quite a dissertation there Yogi!
You are almost getting as windy as I normally am, hi hi.
However, all the information and commentary is EXCELLENT, well worth the read.
Because my office is in a separate building, I have all of my computers set to require a log-in after 15 minutes of idle time.
With the exception that if I have a program running, that is active, the screen will not blank until I stop the running program or let it stop on it's own and then the computer monitor goes to sleep and requires a log-in.
I do have one computer that does not require a log-in, but it does go to sleep.
Moving the mouse wakes it back up again. But there is no data on that computer other than the OS.
It is the one I use to display a page when I am rewriting, or whatever I need to refer to while working.
I probably already knew this, but did learn a little bit about the Internet I had forgotten.
What was throwing me was I was reading the headers for a few e-mails, a couple from the frau's computer, and a few from mine, as they were shown complete on my ISP SMTP server.
All of my e-mails had one extra IP address in the header that was not in her e-mails.
This had me baffled for a while since I thought a LAN Switch did not assign or add an IP address.
I also thought her computer was using a LAN Switch also, until I went down to the house to find out her computer goes directly to the Router, the LAN switch down there was used to connect other things to the router, like the WiFi TV.
Plus I had another surprise also. I thought the Cable that passed through the Ooma telephone was direct between modem and router. Guess not because its IP number also appeared in both of our e-mails headers.
Most of these do not appear in your own e-mail header, since they are stripped off by the system as not necessary for tracking an e-mail. Only the tracking IP numbers necessary are shown.
An outbound e-mail had my computers IP as the top entry, followed by the LAN Switch IP, followed by the Routers IP, followed by the VOIP phone boxes IP, followed by my Modem IP, and then my ISP's IP, followed by the destination IP.
That is what is in the wrapper or package of an outbound e-mail.
Then whatever Nodes or Hubs the mail travels through probably adds more IP addresses for the return route, or maybe not, since the return e-mail will only be looking for my ISP's IP and can take any route to get there.
However, the return e-mail to me, will still contain the entire list of IP numbers, which get stripped off in order to reach my computer. So I assume the ISP strips it's own IP as it sends it to my modem, which then strips the modem IP as it sends to the router, which strips the router IP as it goes to the switch, which strips the switch IP as it goes to my computer.
Then the header only shows the senders IP, and the nodes or hubs it passed through, and my ISPs IP and finally my IP.
I am humbled and honored by your acclamation that I am almost as verbose as you. LOL
You will note that I do that mostly with technical information, and that is primarily due to my familiarity with geeky stuff from the get go. I can also get long winded about current events (politics), but that's a double edged sword. Some things you just don't want to read about. I do make an effort in most cases to make the read worth it. Be it innuendo, sarcasm, philosophy, or brutal honesty it is my desire to leave my readers glad they read it. Well, that used to be my goal when we were a very active website. Now it's just force of habit.
E-mail headers are not that difficult to understand in theory, but they can contain TMI; too much information. Back in the early days of this website I'd go through the process of trying to verify the reality of each member who applied for registration. Some of those e-mail headers were pretty interesting in showing the origins of the message. But, over time, things got complicated. People learned how to spoof their message's origin and that changed the whole ballgame. However, most of the spoofers were not very clever and made their phony IP address obviously incorrect. I also used to go after spam e-mail the same way. I was able to chase people off servers by reporting their spam to the webmaster of the site they were using. Eventually the persistent ones ended up in some Eastern Block European country that does not enforce anti-spam policies. So, the best I could do is delay them for a day or two and cause them to make new accounts elsewhere. And they always did make new accounts elsewhere. So now I just use Thunderbird to filter the spam into a Junk folder and empty that out periodically.
I've not noticed all those internal IP addresses in my mail headers, but everything on the other side of my modem is listed in one form or another. It seems that some people are able to determine my LAN IP address. I tried to find out how they do it because the router has a firewall that should prevent such things. But legitimate places like my credit card company can tell what IP this tower is using. That's another reason I like to use virtual machines. The IP changes in almost every session and it has no reference to the network hosting the VM. Or, at least I've not been able to find that reference if it's there.
I love to read the technological tidbits you write about, mainly because most of them are written in a way I can understand them.
Since I had a Packet Radio Station, I was familiar with how packets were sent and received via Radio Waves, and it really was fairly simple. Instead of an IP number, the packets contained our Ham Radio Call Sign, plus each packet was numbered so they got put back together by the receiving end in proper order. My Packet Station only connected to one Major Packet Radio Hub without needing to go through relay stations. In fact, my station was a relay station for those who could not reach the hub. And sorta like how IP addresses are wrapped on on another, so was my call sign stacked on top of a packet that went through my repeater.
There was one interesting aspect about this system. Someone sending a message could receive it through another repeater other than the one it went through on transmit. Even parts of packets could take different paths back to the sender. In other words, if my relay was turned off or busy, the reply did not have to go through me. It would strip my relay ID from the transmission and send it to the original sender, looking for a path he might be connected through.
I think the Internet works pretty much like that too.
The big difference between a Packet Station and a Relay is the Relay retains no data, it just accepts a signal and passes it on, project done. But a Packet Station retains the message until it gets an acknowledgement of a successful transmission to the next Packet Station. Unless the Packet Station is also the Mailbox for the recipient, in that case it gets the acknowledgement from the Mailbox that the message was received, called an ACK.
The only way I could see what was all included in my full header was by going to my ISP and looking at my header there. When they send my message on its way down the WIRE, they strip everything not needed on the outbound e-mail, so the recipient only sees my IP address and whatever nodes or hubs the mail passed through between my ISP and his ISP.
When my ISP receives a reply to my message, it adds back the information needed to get it to my sending computer.
I had really never thought about it before, because I figured my own Router would recognize the IP of my computer and still get it to me. But apparently it doesn't work that way, although it seems like it should. After all, if someone sends an e-mail to me, oh wait, I'm the one who fetches it from the POP server, so never mind about that, hi hi.
By my way of thinking, my ISP would only see my Modem's IP, since everything comes in and goes out through the Modem.
And my own Router would know which computers are connected to it.
I was just surprised to see all the IP numbers for my computer and all the devices between my computer and the modem listed on the full-header info given to the ISP.
But now that I think about it a little more. Like when I'm playing Farm Town, which is more or less LIVE like a streaming video I guess. Even so, I would compare the LAN Switch as nothing more than a Relay Station. It is the Router who has to keep track of everything and what is connected to it. So if the LAN switch is only a Relay, why is its IP number part of the header? I do realize it is so the Router knows the Path to my Computer by IP address, but isn't it just like a closed relay in a way, only done electronically.
As an aside: I used my St. Louis ISP for years after moving south to Knoxville. To save phone costs, I was given a dial-up at a local bank to use them as my relay to my ISP. Even so, I had a few problems with a new credit card I was issued down here. Each time I connected to the bank through my St. Louis ISP, it showed them I was not local which gave a warning to them the first several times, then all was OK. And when I finally got a local ISP, they started up with the warning again for a short time.
Heck, even now, I think Google Chrome clears some data, and when I connect to certain websites I have to log-in again, and then I get an e-mail from them saying A New Computer Running Linux has Connected to your Account at date and time, If This Was You, you can ignore this message. If not you should immediately change your password and check your account data.
Apparently radio packets are closely related to network data packets. The protocol is different (HTTP for the Internet) but the data model is likely the same, or close enough. There is a tremendous amount of overhead accompanying each packet of data, and I'm amazed the networks aren't bogged down by it all. The key to it all is the routing information. But that's only half the story. The servers, routers, switches, and everything else on the network have tables that translate that overhead into something meaningful. I'm sure you have done a traceroute or two in your time. Reading all that routing detail is how it's done.
Like yourself I'm a bit miffed at why anybody needs to know more than your modem's MAC address and the IP assigned to it by your ISP. I think in some cases ISP's restrict the number of machines you can hook up, but to be honest I've not seen that restriction in many many years. Now that I think about it, those HTTP data packets have both the source and the destination routing information embedded. That's how the router knows where to send the packets. Thus, all those IP addresses must be a permanent part of each data packet. Whether they are displayed or not in an e-mail header is a function of the mail server. The data is there regardless. I still don't know how to extract it, but I'm sure there is an app for that. LOL
And, by the way, the LAN switch ID information would be part of the header if it is in the path of the originating or receiving device. The router should know what's on it's network, but it doesn't know anything about the data it is routing. That's why all those IP addresses have to be appended so that the router can look them up and send the packets to the device intended.
There is a lot of emphasis on privacy and security that didn't exist a year or two ago. Anything that could remotely be considered sensitive is tracked by the service provider such as Google. It does indeed keep track of all the devices you have a history of using to receive or send mail, for example. So, when something new shows up they don't know if it's OK or not. All they know is that it's not in their records. Thus they give you a warning with all the info they have on it. It's up to you to fix it if you have been hacked, but at least they tell you when the possibility arose. You might want to look at your G-mail headers to see what kind of security checks they are doing. You would be amazed at all the trouble they are going through to be certain the incoming mail is not spoofed. If you read about it all you will find that you can give them settings to restrict from whence you get you mail. Google is really into security these days.
Technically, I could receive me e-mail from any of my computers, as long as I use that computer to connect to the Pop Server. And since this is how I get my e-mail into Thunderbird for my ISP, it doesn't seem logical to have my entire route from the computer to the modem as a part of my header. The buck stops at the ISP!
Folks who had mailboxes on my Ham Packet System, my system listened to every radio license call, and if that call happened to be one on my system, it would capture the packets with that users call sign, assemble them in order, send an ACK if it was received properly or a RSD if the checksum didn't match so the hub would send it again. After assembling all the packets of the message, it would place it in the users mailbox and set a flag. When the person holding that call sign sent their station ID over the air, my system would send a You Have Mail message to their packet transceiver.
My experience with how Radio Packet Modems worked, is why I was so disheartened with the much more expensive modems for Computers. A 30 dollar packet radio modem did so much more than a 150 to 200 dollar external computer modem. And the first four modems I bought for my computer never worked right at all. Had to replace them like 2 or 3 times each before I finally got one that most of the functions worked.
Although my ISP does have my e-mails available on-line like y-mail or g-mail which are both web-mail services, I prefer my e-mail comes in through the pop server so I can retrieve it with my own computer and have an in-house copy without having to download each message from a web mail based system.
I have used both g-mail and y-mail for some things, back when you could have the mail forwarded to your ISP mailbox. When they cut that out, I closed the accounts and/or just quit using them.
When using a Web Browser I can see how each bit of information would need the entire string of IP addresses back to my computer, which would include the switch IP as well.
But then too, once you are connected to a web site, it seems it would work more like all the mechanical relays switches stayed closed while you were connected so no IPs would be needed after you were connected, just a hold the line open flag.
Most of what I've read never gets into such detail regarding how information travels along the Internet highway from point A to point B, at best they show your computer and a few other devices all connected to a Router then to your ISP who is directly connected to the Internet.
Debi asked the IT guy when he was in the Ace Hardware store to do something with their computer system, a simple question I had asked her several times to ask. On what do they store all the data, not how but on what. He said at the home office they have 14 Raid Arrays with 8 drives in each for a total of 112 individual 2-terabyte drives. 7 of the Arrays are off-line backup Arrays for the 7 on-line Arrays, but technically are always on-line but not accessible by the stores. Plus we have leased off-site storage with a data company in Georgia.
He added also that due to the age of the systems, they are currently replacing 2 to 3 hard drives per month. All the Arrays started out with 500 gig hard drives and were upgraded to 1 terabyte drives. Then as we replaced the Arrays, we only swapped the 1 terabyte drives into the new enclosures, and over time, after all were replaced, we started adding 2-terabyte drives, until now all the enclosures have 2-terabyte drives. The next time we upgrade enclosures we will be going with 12-bay enclosures, seems nobody makes quality 8-bay rack mounted anymore.
I would love to see a photo of their IT department at HQ! They have 22 hardware stores all tied to the HQ computers.
Wish I also understood how all that works, hi hi.
I'm missing a lot of details about network traffic, but I do know a couple things. I'll just fill in the blanks with my imagination to make it sound real.
Let's say I send you an e-mail to the address gary@gmail.com.
Since I'm using the web version of G-mail, let's just say my note to you goes right over the web to the G-mail mail servers after I hit the send button.
The G-mail server has to figure out where to send this data. They know right away from the domain name that you are one of their clients and thus have your address in their DNS lookup tables. That address is the IP your ISP assigned to your modem (internet connection point).
Well, as it happens, you have an account with G-mail so that they don't need to forward my message. They just store it on their server and let you know that incoming mail is waiting for your viewing on your web browser.
This is kind of like peer to peer networking. Since you and I are on the same (G-mail) network, IP addresses are not really needed. I'm guessing they use MAC addresses because that is how they know when you are using a "new" device on which to get your mail. It's how they sync all your devices too, i.e., via MAC addresses.
But you are a strange bird and decided to use a POP (or IMAP) mail server. Thus YOUR mail all gets forwarded to the POP server of your choice.
In the case of POP mail the message I sent to you stays resident on the G-mail server, but a copy also gets sent to the POP server. That routing to your POP server is specified in those DNS tables that convert "gary" to an IP address. So, Google knows who your POP and/or IMAP servers are.
That's it for all G-mail cares about. They forwarded my message to your server and kept a copy on their server to boot. They don't care what happens to it after that.
The POP mail people also have a DNS table on a special server for that purpose. In their case they equate gary@gmail.com to your Internet connection point, which is the IP address of your modem.
Your modem isn't a mail carrier so all it does is send the e-mail data packets to the gateway of your LAN. That gateway is just some software that picks out your relevant IP addresses out of all the traffic reaching your modem.
Certain domains are reserved for LAN traffic only. 192.xxx.xxx.xxx was typically for IPv4 and now 10.xxx.xxx.xxx seems to be the IPv6 default. There are others but those two are the most popular and only used by DHCP servers to assign random IP addresses on a local network.
So, now your gateway has some data packets with your LAN IP information. But the gateway is stupid. It merely knows how to pick out that first triplet of numbers, which is why the gateway is generally attached to your router.
Your router has lookup tables too. It knows what LAN IP (that which was assigned by your local DHPC server) is associated with what piece of equipment (it's MAC address). While that is pretty clever, it still makes the router look stupid. All it knows is where on your LAN to send this data it's been collection from the gateway.
At this point the data packet is sitting on your network card. This is where it gets fuzzy. You have software running, Thunderbird, that knows this data packet came from the POP/IMAP server you configured into it's settings. So it takes that packet and does whatever Thunderbird does in order to make you happy.
As you might suspect, all these different IP addresses have to be part of the incoming packet of data so that various pieces of equipment and their software can figure out where to send it next.
And, it goes without saying, the source of the data packet is also documented the same way as is the destination.
Simple, eh?
That's the process in a nutshell. How the routing numbers actually get attached to the data packets is specified in the OSI model for network data. This information is independent of network infrastructure. It's one of the few standards that everybody recognizes, and thank the gods for that. It is why the Internet works at all. So, if the data packets are formed correctly, they will arrive at their intended destination. The software at that destination then processes the data to do whatever the software is intended to do; send and receive e-mail in this example.
And as an aside, packet radio must work in a similar fashion. The big difference is that instead of IP and MAC addresses, those radio packets use the radio station call sign as the location identifier. There must be lookup tables at the end points in order to sort things out. The repeaters along the way simply act like a LAN switch and do nothing but broadcast the data forward.
I played around with TraceRoute for about ten minutes yesterday.
The one thing I see interesting is the path may go different ways if you disconnect from a site and connect back to it again.
Sometimes it is surprising to see it go clear to Nevada when I was connecting to a place in St. Louis, hi hi.
Since I'm on Comcast, most of my connects are only a couple of hops if the website I'm going to is also on Comcast but in another state. However, if the website happens to be on Charter, there may be six to eight hops.
I've seen some traces to places as close as Chicago go through European switches. It all depends on the loading and it's all self-correcting. One of the big problems with network loading are those spam bots. They target certain areas and can bring down the incoming network links. It's been a problem for many years and it has more or less been resolved. DDoS attacks, however, are of the magnitude that can tie up not only specific servers but a whole network leading up to it as well. In fact there are some strategic and military concerns involved. I saw a map one time of the current state of the network. It pointed out the heavy traffic and from whence it was all coming. You guessed right if you guessed the origins were Russia and China. Lately Iran has upped it's presence too. Looking at that map made me wonder why the network works at all, but your traceroute experience explains it. If the direct path from Knoxville to St Louis is blocked, your data may travel over the North Pole and back to get here.
I remember way back in the early days when our messages used to bounce primarily through the college server nodes and some of the larger ISPs who handled network traffic before the Internet infrastructure was fully developed.
I was still living in Des Peres and using an Apple II for which I bought a 1200 baud modem, our computer club set up a BBS service and I wanted to be able to connect to it.
It wasn't until I moved up to Creve Coeur when I got an account on the BBS and got it up and running. I took an evening class and Wash U where I learned about Arpanet, and as a student I was given access to it. I didn't use it much once I was active with doing my BBS thing.
I didn't upgrade to an Apple II+ for about 3 or 4 more years, and this is also when I got a better 22.6 modem and joined an ISP. After finding USENET and Newsgroups, I didn't do much with my BBS, until my ISP made it available on the new World Wide Web. As the web began to grow, Net Lag became a major issue.
I also got burned by getting an AOL account, and all my time was burned up waiting on their many upgrade downloads.
It was how I did my first e-mails, and thought I was on the Web, but I found everything I was getting, other than my e-mails was all in-house at AOL. When they hit me up for a 300 dollar charge, which was how long it took to download the next upgrade from them, I cancelled my service.
It wasn't until after I switched from Apple to a PC that I joined Inlink as my ISP. Then I could surf the real Web!
Also built my first simple web page too, based on how my BBS was set up and closed my BBS shortly afterward.
After Inlink closed down, I returned to our computer club which was now a great ISP with many features nobody else had.
I was still there, using my St. Louis ISP when I moved south, and was down here for at least 3 years before I finally connected to Comcast Cable, and that was only after using it through a connection to my son-in-law's computer and when he moved out I took over the contract.
I don't think I've been away from my computer since, hi hi.
If I had my druthers I would have been a network engineer. I love the complexity of it all and the major effect it has on everyday living. It's a power trip to think of how many people depend on the public network, and I'm certain a lot of hacking gets done because of that feeling of power. I miss being at Motorola just to be rubbing elbows with people who know what is going on because they are doing it. I recall some dire predictions being made about the the time when all the possible IPv4 addresses would be used up. Well, they solved that problem and we are good to go until humans cover every square foot of the planet. LOL Now and days, If I had to work for a living, it would be in the field of penetration testing and ethical hacking. Finding loopholes in the system is my kind of activity. It's among the highest paying jobs in technology as well. Just as the IP address problem was solved, I believe the day will come when security will no longer be an issue. We may have to have computer chips implanted inside our brains for that to happen, but I know the day is coming when passwords and login credentials will be obsolete.
Along those lines we already have fingerprint log-ins, retina scan log-ins, although I don't like lasers shot into my eyes.
Heck, before I moved south 15 years ago, Monsanto already had facial recognition at certain building gates and at the entry doors. It was supposed to save time for those super high paid scientists. In a couple of the labs, it takes several items for them to gain entry, I assume RFI chips in their badges, besides the clip on they wear inside their shirt pocket, and a facial scan, plus maybe some other things for them to get through the door.
When I worked at MAC in the late 1960's, after I got moved up to NASA division. I had to memorize three different codes to get into the drafting room where I worked. My own ID number, my code for the buildings main door, and my code for the room I worked in. Even though I had a Black security clearance and could roam about inside that building, I could not get through most of the corridor doors and definitely not into any of the office or room doors.
I HATED working there, and only stayed a few months. But it was the draft that got me out of that hell hole and into the frying pan.
Far out as it sounds I have read where they are looking at the potential for brain waves to be used for access to sensitive information. The most breaches that occur today are from people with legitimate login credentials. Twitter just went through that and is still investigating how they broke into Bill Gates's account. It was simply a matter of stealing the credentials and the bad guys using them to get into places they would normally not be allowed. That just goes to show how vulnerable name/password entry is. All the bio recognition systems can be spoofed, even faces. That is why they are trying to find something unique, or better yet build a secure computer that doesn't need login credentials. That is where embedding a chip into your brain starts to be a factor. I don't think us home computer people will need to go to that extreme, but there are many high security jobs were it would be nice to be bulletproof.
You both brought back memories... I still preserve a bunch of motorola semiconductors manuals and several application notes copies from my University years... I was already working when the semiconductos division was converted to ON Semiconductors, and later absorbed Fairchild Semiconductors... I'm still faithfull to them, and to TI, given that they bought all the assets of National Semiconductors...
Yogi, from the description you give of the Big box speakers, I think the woofers not connected are what they call "Passiver Radiators". The idea is that they vibrate in sinchronicity with the active 14 inchers. From what I've read, the idea is to dampen the pressure changes inside the speaker box by having an unplugged woofer that mimics the plugged woofer. Most surely, a labyrinth of ducts and chambers were inside the big box to tune the delay between the active woofer and the passive radiator so that the passive woofer actually reinforces the sound of the active woofer.
On the landline part... Welll, Parents landline had a wait time of five years (guess from 1980 to 1985) from request paperwork to setup... When Telmex was one of the most bureaucratic state owned companies of the country. When I signed my first long time contract, for Dial Up Internet access along with a landline in 1998, it all took two weeks... I still pay the same monthly ammount in Mexican Pesos for my landline plus Internet connection and they upgraded without cost to DSL in 2005, changed the DSL modem also without cost in 2015, and upgraded to our actual full optic fiber connection in 2018. Sinc getting any of the modems, as the Telmex technicians have to leave them working, I just change the passwords at first chance, configure the new passwords into the stuff that connects there via WiFi (just the cells, the web TV and the cells), and share the codes only with sis, that comes not very often. For the rest of the neighbors, there's no free lunch. If I catch anything within the LAN that I can't recognize, its blacklisted.
Our local TBI (TN FBI) after months finally tracked down a lady who was using peoples credit card accounts complete with expiration date, name, address, and the security number on the back.
In order to catch her, they had to first figure out where she was getting all the necessary information from.
They could not find a common place they all shopped, so ruled out a cashier at a store.
And she was smart enough not to use any of the card info she collected until after 90 days had passed.
So her source would then be three months old and three charge statement cycles away before she used them.
Even then TBI was still having a problem finding a common location for her to have obtained them.
Turned out she was a medical receptionist who worked at two different doctors offices, one across town from the other.
And the only patients cards she took information from were those patients who's next appointment was not for a year later.
Apparently she also must have checked the daily routine for those patients she chose to use their card information by sitting near their house, and made sure something she ordered would be delivered on a day when they would not likely be home.
Whatever she ordered, she had delivered to their home, so the address on the charge matched with the recipient.
A few doorbell and security camera's did catch her playing porch pirate, but never caught her face. And she was careful never to park near the house so no license plate or car type was obtained that way.
A few traffic light camera's picked up her car though in the vicinity of where a few of these thefts took place, but that was not determined until after they nailed her.
TBI had a list of every item that was stolen, which they obtained from the sellers, so had serial numbers for many of the items if they applied. Then they found where she was advertising them on-line in different places. And eventually the info led back to her. She claimed innocent, that she bought all those things at area yard sales. But then after finding out where she worked, TBI looked further back on the credit card statements and found the two common places all the victims used their credit cards.
Juan - thanks for the insight into my former passive speaker system. I regret having to dispose of it because I have yet to find something that reproduces music as faithfully as those speakers.
Our credit card info has been compromised a few times since we've been here in Missouri. I don't think it's the location in particular, but it might be, because we were hijacked a time or two up north too. Up there it was not as often as down here. It could be a local merchant or restaurant doing some creative hacking, but I also order a ton of stuff online. I'm not sure which to distrust more, but the credit card company never tells me the results of their investigation so that I can avoid making ourselves vulnerable. Then again, I have my doubts that they actually investigate attempted charges (ones not completed). So, if they don't mind investigating fake charges to my card, I don't mind getting a new card a couple times a year. In fact that's kind of a good thing. Anybody who stores my CC info has the wrong information after 6 months. LOL
