"craigm" wrote in message
...




I know there is a trap in my house to keep the cable modem traffic from
my
television equipment. I think this is basically to prevent the outgoing
data
from interfering with the television equipment. (Outgoing = from me to the
world).


[snip]


Relative to BPL. There are traps already in place. BPL signals can't pass
through a transformer. In order to propagate BPL the power company will
need
to add bypasses at each transformer.

Yeah, I suppose nearly all farmhouses will be on their own transformer. But
homes in the small towns will usually be sharing transformers. Transformers
will be bypassed unless none of the people in those homes are BPL
subscribers. It seems unlikely the power companies would remove the bypass
if somebody tries BPL and drops it. Apartment houses would almost certainly
get a bypassed transformer.

And lets not forget pushy "promotions". When the cable TV company came to
the town I used to live in, they kept sending cards offering to run the
cables through the house even if we had no intention to subscribe. Such a
deal!! It's wasn't even free coax, because the small print maintains that
they still own the stuff. They might have been using telemarketers as well,
but the phone conversation ends as soon as somebody mistakes me for my
father (Mr. Dresser).

Since BPL also requires repeaters approx. every 1/4 mile, there may not
be
much interference beyond the immediate service areas.

Relative to " I very seldom hear complaints about the security of
people's
cable connections". Cable is one big party line, if some on the local
section of the cable has sharing enabled, their system is visible.
Everybody
has an IP address and all machines are addressable. If a machine is
lintening, and responds, you can make a connection to it. This why
software
and hardware firewalls are important for cable modem users.

Just more fuel for the discussion.

Craig



Keep the fuel coming! Next we'll look for some bottles and rags!!

Frank Dresser