Robert X. Cringely Opines: [snip] > But wait, it gets worse. There are aspects of this case that the ACLU > hasn't even considered. The Carnivore boxes are what's called > "co-located" at the ISP. This isn't a rare thing. Many organizations > like to control their own Web or mail servers and so co-locate them at > an ISP. Colocation puts your server closer to the Internet backbone, > eliminates typical T-1 line costs, allows the ISP to monitor and reboot > the server, and usually comes with nifty things like redundant backbone > connections and diesel generators in case the power goes out. Companies > in the co-location business include well-known names like AT&T, IBM, and > Intel. So there are tens of thousands -- maybe hundreds of thousands -- > of computers already installed just like the FBI installs its Carnivore > boxes. What keeps those co-located computers from being sniffers, too? > Nothing at all. For $300 per month, you too could install your own > Carnivore box at the ISP of your choice. Co-location facilities don't > really care what you do with your co-located server as long as you keep > paying the bill. Uh, no. No ISP with half a clue would position a customer's co-located server where it can sniff all the ISP's traffic by putting its interface into promiscuous mode. That would completely eliminate any pretense of network security, and permit almost everyone's login password to be gathered. Co-located machines go on their own ethernet segments if they use a significant fraction of the bandwidth of the router port they are plugged into, or on a segment with a few other co-located machines if they are paying on the inexpensive low-bandwidth plan. No ISP puts co-located machines on the ISP's backbone. So all this talk about everyone being able to have their own carvnivore box for $300 a month at the ISP of their choice is a wet dream of Mr. Cringely's, having no relationship to anything which exists in the real world of competent network administration. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
