[NOISE] Geek Apartments

[Rabid Wombat]

On Tue, 13 Aug 1996, Ben Combee wrote:

> installation first.  It worked out quite well, especially the privacy
> aspects, as the dorm routers encrypted all packets so only the
> intended Ethernet node could receive it (at least that is what they
> said).  

I'm not familiar with the GA Tech network, but they probably didn't
"encrypt at the router."  They most likely used concentrators which would
send a the original packet only to the concentrator port registered for
the MAC (layer 2) address involved, and sent a packet with the payload
overwritten with "junk" out the other ports, to comply with ethernet rules
whereby all devices "see" the packet. Not encryption at all, but it does
defeat sniffing (on the local segment only) if configured in this manner. 

- r.w.