Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: PGPfone Beta 7 Now Available for Download
On 12 Jul 96 at 21:31, Arun Mehta wrote:
At 23:38 10/07/96 -0700, Will Price wrote:
ANNOUNCEMENT: PGPfone Beta 7 Now Available for Download
Sorry if this has been discussed before (please point me in the right direction if that is the case), but VSNL, my government-owned ISP (which also has a monopoly on all international traffic) made me sign that I will not use my Internet connection for voice traffic. Is there any way they could find out if I were using PGPfone, or rather, could I prevent them from finding out?
Arun: I can't give you a definitive answer here, but I'll take a shot. Most Internet telephony systems use UDP packets to transfer speech, since the lower overhead of UDP (as opposed to TCP) allows for better throughput. I assume (but I'm not certain) that PGPfone works the same way. Unfortunately, most of your other TCP/IP communication will be based on TCP packets. Therefore, it's theoretically possible for your ISP to monitor your traffic, watching for large numbers of UDP packets. --------------- Harry Hochheiser harry@tigger.jvnc.net 08 3A B5 F6 47 7F C7 C4 28 B4 8D D2 2E DF F6 1E
On Sat, 13 Jul 1996, Harry Hochheiser wrote:
On 12 Jul 96 at 21:31, Arun Mehta wrote:
VSNL, my government-owned ISP (which also has a monopoly on all international traffic) made me sign that I will not use my Internet connection for voice traffic. Is there any way they could find out if I were using PGPfone, or rather, could I prevent them from finding out?
Most Internet telephony systems use UDP packets to transfer speech, since the lower overhead of UDP (as opposed to TCP) allows for better throughput. I assume (but I'm not certain) that PGPfone works the same way.
Unfortunately, most of your other TCP/IP communication will be based on TCP packets. Therefore, it's theoretically possible for your ISP to monitor your traffic, watching for large numbers of UDP packets.
Thanks for the input. Is UDP used for other purposes not related to voice that I might pretend to be doing? Or is there still some way of fooling them? Arun
--------------- Harry Hochheiser harry@tigger.jvnc.net 08 3A B5 F6 47 7F C7 C4 28 B4 8D D2 2E DF F6 1E
In article <oluAERy00iWTQ0u2Zy@andrew.cmu.edu>, Timothy Lawrence Nali <tn0s+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
> Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 14-Jul-96 Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: PGPfone > B.. by Arun Mehta@giasdl01.vsnl >> Thanks for the input. >> >> Is UDP used for other purposes not related to voice that I might pretend >> to be doing? Or is there still some way of fooling them? > One thing that comes to mind are network games. I not sure if Doom or > Quake can use UDP, but I'm fairly certain that Netrek uses UDP packets > (up to 16 players run client programs which communicate with a game > server using TCP or UDP). Hmm... This looks like a _really_ good place for stego. Granted, you might get a significant slow down, but it might be worth it depending on your needs. -Robin
Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 14-Jul-96 Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: PGPfone B.. by Arun Mehta@giasdl01.vsnl
Thanks for the input.
Is UDP used for other purposes not related to voice that I might pretend to be doing? Or is there still some way of fooling them?
One thing that comes to mind are network games. I not sure if Doom or Quake can use UDP, but I'm fairly certain that Netrek uses UDP packets (up to 16 players run client programs which communicate with a game server using TCP or UDP). _____________________________________________________________________________ Tim Nali \ "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of tn0s@andrew.cmu.edu \ the dreams" -Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
participants (4)
-
Arun Mehta -
Harry Hochheiser -
Robin Powell -
Timothy Lawrence Nali