Hi Herbert,

Tuesday, June 27, 2006, 4:19:49 PM, you wrote:

> On Tue, 2006-06-27 at 10:25 -0500, Patrick Murphy wrote:
>> > Obviously, physically securing the hardware is an issue, but I don't see
>> > that as a big issue.
>> 
>> That password barrier sould be a good deterrent. 

> As long as the password is set to something OTHER then the default, you
> wouldn't believe how many times I've found devices with the default
> password still set.

>> I'm a bit uncertain, however, what device would require a password
>> - do modems themselves allow the requiring of passwords? It's been
>> a while since I've tried it, but IIRC, I was able to connect my
>> laptop directly to my broadband modem and surf the net.

> The password would be in the VPN box. The only connection you supply to
> the clients is a connection to the VPN box. The VPN box would be
> connected to the modem, and would be the only thing at the colony with a
> free connection to the internet, hence the need to physically secure it.
> The VPN box's configuration would have to be passworded.

If I use a computer running Linux, that should be a good deterrent by
itself, as there are very few in the colonies that have any experience
with Linux.

>> I like the idea of ISP transparency - some colonies can only get an
>> expensive satellite connection, while others would be able to choose a
>> less expensive connection.
>> 
>> The tradeoff is, then, lower bandwidth vs. ISP transparency.

> Absolutely. That said, if email and a few webpages are the only things
> the clients are using bandwidth shouldn't be much of an issue.

That makes sense.

-- 
Best regards,
Patrick Murphy
James Valley Colony
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist