Research - Valid Data Gathering vs. Annoying Other

Fri Aug 6 22:50:00 UTC 2004

: [[.. $ mount /dev/soapbox      # you have been warned.   ..]]

Yes...

: *HOW* is one supposed to tell a 'benign' probe from a 'hostile' one,
: when it is addressed to a machine that doesn't exist, or to a 'service'
: that doesn't exist on an existant machine?

Who cares?  It's your network.  If you don't want the traffic, block it.
Research, malicious, virii, or whatever.

: HOWEVER, that notwithstanding, *EVERY*ONE* gets reported to the responsible
: _network_operator_ -- as an 'apparent virus-infected machine on your network',

Waste of bandwidth.  Borders on GWF.

: The reporting is mostly to help the other operators keep _their_ networks
: clean.  And to get those machines off-line  -- so that they cannot infect

There will never be enough fire in the world to make a lazy netadmin GUOTA
(Get Up Off Their A$$)  It's a waste of bandwidth.

: This is one of two _good_ approaches.  "Get Permission.  *FIRST*"

In the old networks, but not now.  That's silly in a globally connected
infrastructure.

: > How do you view the issue of experiments that probe random sites?  Should
: > this be accepted as "reasonable", or should it be disallowed?  Something
: > in between?

There ain't any better testbed that the real world; test away.  If I don't
want them testing my network, I'll stop them.  It's my network and I'll do
what I want with what I paid for.

scott