Unencrypted modems - beware

YC obviously knows me far, far too well!!

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

What this means is that the DSL username (that is, the username passed by PPP in setting up the DSL - which may or may not also be the username you use to access your webmail and other ISP services) is *not* tied to a telephone number - I always thought it was. Now I don't know the setup at the unknown mate's end is, surely his line must have been setup for DSL at some stage, and I would guess he's probably got BT as an ISP but the crucial thing is - on phoning BT on two seperate occasions they told us that the store was logged in, using the username assigned to the store and using the store IP address; it was only on the third attempt that they dug further and cross checked the telephone circuit using the DSL username.

As you & YC suspected, I've know this for a very long time. The system COULD be setup such that you wouldn't need a username & password, and authentication could be done merely by Circuit ID & phone number. But that's a little insecure & open to abuse, so BT chose the secure method over the convienent one (shock I know!).

The main caveat is that you have to have the right type of DSL enabled on the line (otherwise nothing will work). Also you have to have the right CPS these days, and that's becoming an increasing problem.