Dynamic vs. static IP (was Re: sbc yahoo dsl)

[Romain Kang]

<harry at corsazzi.com> wrote:
> I think the advantage is that [a static IP address] makes it
> easier to connect remotely to your home/office computer from
> elsewhere. However, that is also the disadvantage. Without adequate
> firewall protection, someone can identify your IP address and try
> to hack in.

These days, dynamic IP addresses don't really protect you, either.
Even dialup users are getting attacked these days.

When I was on the road a couple of weeks in December, I noticed the
dialup monitor showing traffic when I was idle.  Since I'm a UNIX
networking veteran, I fired up tcpdump, which showed my Powerbook
was getting pinged.  When the PB responded to the ping, the attacker
would start attempting to attack Windows services with known exploits.
Even though the PB was invulnerable, it sapped my dialup bandwidth.
So I used the ipfw feature to turn off ping responses, thus preventing
the Windows attacks.  No more problems.

Hurray for OS X (and FreeBSD, whence OS X gets ipfw).

Romain