Satellite Internet relative security

[James A. Kuzdrall]

Greetings all,

    Thank you for the information and insights.  My few suspicions were 
confirmed and my knowledge broadened.  The dish company representatives are 
purposely non-technical.  Their answer was "When you sign up we will send a 
technician to your house who can answer those questions."

    I will continue, without too much inconvenience, with my dial-up and 
infrequent trips to the library.

Jim Kuzdrall


On Friday 25 August 2017 13:04:11 Brian St. Pierre wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 11:56 AM, James A. Kuzdrall <gnhlug at intrel.com>
>
> wrote:
> >     Does Linux have any special problems interfacing with the dish
> > equipment?
> > Is a standard Ethernet connection enough, or must they install software
> > on the Linux computer?
>
> I had service through Hughes for a couple years around 2010 or so. They
> give you a modem, connect a cable from dish to modem, connect ethernet
> cable from computer to modem, and it's more or less like having dsl or
> cable with horrible latency. You don't need to install anything on linux,
> though you may get hassled by customer support if you have to call in.
>
> The latency is bad. You can end up with no service or degraded performance
> in heavy rain, snow, and/or if there's any snow/ice buildup on the dish. I
> think they still have a daily usage cap, but I'm not sure. It's probably
> better than dialup if you don't care about the latency, but I'd consider it
> a last resort. If there is still a usage cap, you might look at whether a
> mobile data plan and tethering is a viable alternative.

    Latency would be a pain.  Since the military controls combat drones via 
satellite, I assumed it would be fast.  It could be that the commercial links 
go through more processing hubs, but how about the suggestion that it has a 
built-in latency?
>
> If you're concerned about surveillance I would be paranoid and just assume
> that any/all of your physical layers either are compromised already or can
> easily be compromised. Focus your efforts on transport/application layer
> security instead. If a government actor wants to watch your activity,
> they're going to just serve a surveillance order at your ISP and tap your
> traffic off the router.

    Like almost all Americans, I have nothing to hide from Amazon, Google, 
China, or the US.  But, it would be nice if they just asked instead of 
creeping around through our computers like they do.

    It can't be stopped now, I agree, but there is value in making it a bit 
more challenging for them.  Think of the poor patriot who has to dig into our 
computer every time our email or search contains a key word.  Booring.  If 
some variation is necessary for access or secrets, it keeps the poor drudge 
awake, ready to spot real enemies of the people or sales targets.

Jim Kuzdrall