Re: Privacy/Security: How to change my IP address daily or weekly on DSL

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:52:45 -0500, Lil' Abner wrote:
>> What is the easiest way to change my DSL IP address periodically?
>
> The way you're doing it is about the only way it can be done.

Hi Lil' Abner,
Thank you for taking the time to try to advise a fellow computer user.
I was hoping that there was a simple software way to lose the lease on the
IP address and then come back an hour later and regain the lease.

I have a few computers on the home network, so I wonder if I go to each and
do an ipconfig /release it would work?

Do you think that will work?

Is there a better software way to give up an IP address for an hour or two
and then ask for a new one from the ISP (no, dialup isn't an answer)?

"Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ncxh1k01x61t$.qa8ivabmo4xo.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:52:45 -0500, Lil' Abner wrote:
> >> What is the easiest way to change my DSL IP address periodically?
> >
> > The way you're doing it is about the only way it can be done.
>
> Hi Lil' Abner,
> Thank you for taking the time to try to advise a fellow computer user.
> I was hoping that there was a simple software way to lose the lease on the
> IP address and then come back an hour later and regain the lease.

A little script will do this.
>
> I have a few computers on the home network, so I wonder if I go to each
and
> do an ipconfig /release it would work?

You may get the same IP from your ISP
>
> Do you think that will work?
>
> Is there a better software way to give up an IP address for an hour or two
> and then ask for a new one from the ISP (no, dialup isn't an answer)?

The question remains, why do you think it is needed to get a different IP
address.

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:31:28 -0800, Dana wrote:
> A little script will do this.
>> I have a few computers on the home network,
>> so I wonder if I go to each and
>> do an ipconfig /release it would work?
>
> You may get the same IP from your ISP

Hi Dana,
Thank you again for your willingness to help approach a technical problem.

Previously I answered (as best I could) WHY I want to do this small bit of
privacy enhancement (it's similar to the reason there are little walls
between telephones attached to a hotel lobby).

A lot of little things enhance privacy and security; changing ones IP
address periodically is a little change of direction that helps prevent
carnivores from tracking down their innocent sleeping prey.

Back to the technical aspect of the problem ... I found that I need at
least an hour of down time before the ISP will release the lease on the IP
address. That's OK as I generally do it overnight (which always gets me a
new IP address).

So, let's assume that, say, 5 hours of down time always gets me a new IP.
What is a software way to accomplish that task (bearing in mind there is a
dsl modem and linksys router in between the computers and the ISP).

Do you think that writing a script to run an "ipconfig /release" on every
WinXP computer inside the home network would cause the ISP to release the
IP address. Wouldn't the DSL modem or router (which dials back periodically
into the ISP) maintain the connection even without computers on the home
side?

Is there a way to tell the linksys router to only dial in when we want to
(without shutting it down which is what I do today to accomplish the same
task)?

The technical solution must be out there ... does anyone know enough about
home networks to help out?

From: "Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com>

| On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:31:28 -0800, Dana wrote:
>> A little script will do this.
>>> I have a few computers on the home network,
>>> so I wonder if I go to each and
>>> do an ipconfig /release it would work?
>>
>> You may get the same IP from your ISP
|
| Hi Dana,
| Thank you again for your willingness to help approach a technical problem.
|

< snip >

I ask you again to remove alt.privacy.spyware from your posts.

All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is the ONLY News Group
you need to post to.

Additionally, you set Follow-Ups and fail to honour them yourself.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:54:28 GMT, Aluxe <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote
in <11ckcvvqmovrj$.1g5ay03lipcg8$.dlg@40tude.net>:

>So, let's assume that, say, 5 hours of down time always gets me a new IP.
>What is a software way to accomplish that task (bearing in mind there is a
>dsl modem and linksys router in between the computers and the ISP).

There isn't any.

>Do you think that writing a script to run an "ipconfig /release" on every
>WinXP computer inside the home network would cause the ISP to release the
>IP address.

You'll likely be given the same address.

>Wouldn't the DSL modem or router (which dials back periodically
>into the ISP) maintain the connection even without computers on the home
>side?

Modem no; router yes if PPPoE, no if bridged.

>Is there a way to tell the linksys router to only dial in when we want to
>(without shutting it down which is what I do today to accomplish the same
>task)?

Yes if PPPoE; no otherwise.

>The technical solution must be out there ...

It's not, short of using an anonymizer service.

>does anyone know enough about
>home networks to help out?

Sure.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
> All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is the ONLY News Group
> you need to post to.
>
Hi David,
I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.

"Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:11ckcvvqmovrj$.1g5ay03lipcg8$.dlg@40tude.net. ..
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:31:28 -0800, Dana wrote:
> > A little script will do this.
> >> I have a few computers on the home network,
> >> so I wonder if I go to each and
> >> do an ipconfig /release it would work?
> >
> > You may get the same IP from your ISP
>
> Hi Dana,
> Thank you again for your willingness to help approach a technical problem.
>
> Previously I answered (as best I could) WHY I want to do this small bit of
> privacy enhancement (it's similar to the reason there are little walls
> between telephones attached to a hotel lobby).
>
> A lot of little things enhance privacy and security; changing ones IP
> address periodically is a little change of direction that helps prevent
> carnivores from tracking down their innocent sleeping prey.

But a firewall will prevent them from coming in.
And using a proxy server would actually hide you from those you think may be
tracking you.

>
> Back to the technical aspect of the problem ... I found that I need at
> least an hour of down time before the ISP will release the lease on the IP
> address. That's OK as I generally do it overnight (which always gets me a
> new IP address).

Depends on the ISP. You can do an IPCONFIG /ALL and determine what the
renewal rate is for the ISP. The above command will show when you got your
lease and when it expires.
>
> So, let's assume that, say, 5 hours of down time always gets me a new IP.
> What is a software way to accomplish that task (bearing in mind there is a
> dsl modem and linksys router in between the computers and the ISP).

A script or bat file using the command.
>
> Do you think that writing a script to run an "ipconfig /release" on every
> WinXP computer inside the home network would cause the ISP to release the
> IP address. Wouldn't the DSL modem or router (which dials back
periodically
> into the ISP) maintain the connection even without computers on the home
> side?

Depends on how long the ISP holds the lease, and how busy they are.
So if as you say you have seen that it takes around 5 hours to sometimes get
a new lease, it depends on your ISP. Your DSL/Cable modem maintaing the link
does not enter the solution at all, as your computers are being assigned an
IP address.
Now your DSL/Cable modem has an address, and if it is static or dynamic,
that is dependent on the ISP. But even changing your PC address, you cannot
change the DSL modem ip address.
>
> Is there a way to tell the linksys router to only dial in when we want to
> (without shutting it down which is what I do today to accomplish the same
> task)?

I would have to look into that.
Other devices allow schedules to be implemented, you would have to look at
your user guide.

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:14:56 -0800, "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com> wrote in
<12jaeblfe3fu14a@corp.supernews.com>:

>Now your DSL/Cable modem has an address, and if it is static or dynamic,
>that is dependent on the ISP. But even changing your PC address, you cannot
>change the DSL modem ip address.

With all due respect, that's not at all accurate -- you should read up
on DOCSIS (cable modem) and DMT (ADSL). The only IP seen by the outside
world is the public IP assigned to a computer or NAT router.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

"John Navas" <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
news:geeaj2tmgunfju34q2ann2l9gdk0i7d5qt@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:14:56 -0800, "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com> wrote in
> <12jaeblfe3fu14a@corp.supernews.com>:
>
> >Now your DSL/Cable modem has an address, and if it is static or dynamic,
> >that is dependent on the ISP. But even changing your PC address, you
cannot
> >change the DSL modem ip address.
>
> With all due respect, that's not at all accurate -- you should read up
> on DOCSIS (cable modem) and DMT (ADSL). The only IP seen by the outside
> world is the public IP assigned to a computer or NAT router.

And again John jumps in with both feet in his mouth.
And that IP address when ran by a whois will state it belongs to the ISP in
question, not to the person who has been assigned that IP by the ISP.
And the cable modems and DSL modems do have an address, it may be a layer
two only address, or if a router is built into the device they can have a
layer 3 address. My cable modem has a mac address that the cable company
uses. So again John, you have displayed that you really are not that well
informed.

"Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1g5u1r8q8ztgp$.1a9ngqoflqnt2.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
> > All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is
the ONLY News Group
> > you need to post to.
> >
> Hi David,
> I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.

Communication security.
Crypto and all that fancy stuff.
Very interesting stuff by the way, especially in the signal intelligence
side of the house.
If you are paranoid about your ISP address, you do not want to know what can
be done by signals intelligence, and other forms of electronic warfare and
electroncic countermeasures.

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:00:54 -0800, "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com> wrote in
<12jah1rmfd0r152@corp.supernews.com>:

>"John Navas" <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
>news:geeaj2tmgunfju34q2ann2l9gdk0i7d5qt@4ax.com.. .
>> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:14:56 -0800, "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com> wrote in
>> <12jaeblfe3fu14a@corp.supernews.com>:
>>
>> >Now your DSL/Cable modem has an address, and if it is static or dynamic,
>> >that is dependent on the ISP. But even changing your PC address, you
>cannot
>> >change the DSL modem ip address.
>>
>> With all due respect, that's not at all accurate -- you should read up
>> on DOCSIS (cable modem) and DMT (ADSL). The only IP seen by the outside
>> world is the public IP assigned to a computer or NAT router.
>
>And again John jumps in with both feet in his mouth.
>And that IP address when ran by a whois will state it belongs to the ISP in
>question, not to the person who has been assigned that IP by the ISP.
>And the cable modems and DSL modems do have an address, it may be a layer
>two only address,

You said "ip address". No other address is visible to the outside world.

>or if a router is built into the device they can have a
>layer 3 address. My cable modem has a mac address that the cable company
>uses.

You said "ip address". No other address is visible to the outside world.

>So again John, you have displayed that you really are not that well
>informed.

Scramble noted and apology accepted.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

From: "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com>

|
| "Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
| news:1g5u1r8q8ztgp$.1a9ngqoflqnt2.dlg@40tude.net.. .
>> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
>>> All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is
| the ONLY News Group
>>> you need to post to.
>>>
>> Hi David,
>> I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.
|
| Communication security.
| Crypto and all that fancy stuff.
| Very interesting stuff by the way, especially in the signal intelligence
| side of the house.
| If you are paranoid about your ISP address, you do not want to know what can
| be done by signals intelligence, and other forms of electronic warfare and
| electroncic countermeasures.
|

Make him even MORE pranoid. Tell him about Tempest Monitoring :-)

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

"David H. Lipman" <DLipman~nospam~@Verizon.Net> wrote in message
news:%RbZg.3467$4T6.993@trnddc02...
> From: "Dana" <raff242@yahoo.com>
>
> |
> | "Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> | news:1g5u1r8q8ztgp$.1a9ngqoflqnt2.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> >> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
> >>> All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is
> | the ONLY News Group
> >>> you need to post to.
> >>>
> >> Hi David,
> >> I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.
> |
> | Communication security.
> | Crypto and all that fancy stuff.
> | Very interesting stuff by the way, especially in the signal intelligence
> | side of the house.
> | If you are paranoid about your ISP address, you do not want to know what
can
> | be done by signals intelligence, and other forms of electronic warfare
and
> | electroncic countermeasures.
> |
>
> Make him even MORE pranoid. Tell him about Tempest Monitoring :-)

Now he is going to shield his house with lead.

>
> --
> Dave
> http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
> http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm
>
>

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:31:28 -0800, in alt.internet.wireless , "Dana"
<raff242@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> I have a few computers on the home network, so I wonder if I go to each
>and
>> do an ipconfig /release it would work?

Nope, the IP of your router is the one you need to refresh.
--
Mark McIntyre

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:06:37 -0800, Dana wrote:
> If you are paranoid about your ISP address, you do not want to know what can
> be done by signals intelligence, and other forms of electronic warfare and
> electroncic countermeasures.

Yes. Indeed. I read that stuff about driving around sniffing everyone's WEP
security out. Apparently it's trivial for my neighbor to read all my
communications. Sigh.

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:24:11 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
> Make him even MORE pranoid. Tell him about Tempest Monitoring :-)

Oh my.

Apparently, unless I drape a wire mesh over my computer monitor, anyone can
read what I am typing from 300 yards away with just 100 dollars of common
equipment!

http://bss.sfsu.edu/fischer/IR%20360...gs/tempest.htm

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:08:29 -0800, Dana wrote:
>> Make him even MORE pranoid. Tell him about Tempest Monitoring :-)
>
> Now he is going to shield his house with lead.

Wouldn't a simple wire-mesh screen suffice?

Luckily, most of the radiation eminates from monitors (according to what I
just read), and not from portable PC screens without any wires attached to
act as antennae.

Seems to me we could create a light conductive cloth (carbon fiber?) which
we could drape over the screen to prevent these tell tale emissions.

I'm going outside now to check the trucks parked on the street to see if
any have an antenna ... :)

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:30:21 +0100, Mark McIntyre wrote:
>>> do an ipconfig /release it would work?
>
> Nope, the IP of your router is the one you need to refresh.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the advice that the ROUTER is the IP I need to refresh.

That must be why I have to unplug the router and plug it back in after
leaving the dsl modem off for a few hours. The ppoe (or whatever it's
called) must kick in when I plug it in.

I wonder if we can kick off the ppoe (or whatever it is) login to the ISP
from the winXP PC?

Aluxe wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:24:11 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
>
>>Make him even MORE pranoid. Tell him about Tempest Monitoring :-)
>
>
> Oh my.
>
> Apparently, unless I drape a wire mesh over my computer monitor, anyone can
> read what I am typing from 300 yards away with just 100 dollars of common
> equipment!
>
> http://bss.sfsu.edu/fischer/IR%20360...gs/tempest.htm

You need to change your meds Aluxe.

Aluxe wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:52:45 -0500, Lil' Abner wrote:
> >> What is the easiest way to change my DSL IP address periodically?
> >
> > The way you're doing it is about the only way it can be done.
>
> Hi Lil' Abner,
> Thank you for taking the time to try to advise a fellow computer user.
> I was hoping that there was a simple software way to lose the lease on the
> IP address and then come back an hour later and regain the lease.
>
> I have a few computers on the home network, so I wonder if I go to each and
> do an ipconfig /release it would work?
>
> Do you think that will work?
>

As other's have said yes a script can do this, however, what you'd
likely accomplish is releasing/renewing the lease of the IP on your LAN
(ie: between your computers and access point/router). What you really
want to accomplish is scripting a release/renew (with a hour or two
between aparently) between your modem and ISP, which is not easily
accomplished.

On 18 Oct 2006 07:14:51 -0700, kingthorin@gmail.com wrote:
> What you really want to accomplish is scripting a release/renew
> between your modem and ISP, which is not easily accomplished.

Hi kingthorin,
I much appreciate your willingness to help and your reasonable ideas.
What always works is to unplug BOTH the modem & router overnight.

Note an "ipconfig /all" does NOT tell us the new IP address of the ROUTER;
I have to obtain the new router IP address from my NNTP server posting line
in my subsequent USENET posts.

Also note that I can't seem to "force" the PPPOE dialup by the router from
the computer so often I need to unplug and replug in the linksys router to
force the router to dial into the dsl isp.

Is there any way you know of to force the linksys router to dial into the
PPPOE account on demand?

"Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1g5u1r8q8ztgp$.1a9ngqoflqnt2.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
>> All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is
>> the ONLY News Group
>> you need to post to.
>>
> Hi David,
> I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.

There is a lot of interesting technical discussion here, but I would like to
take a different approach
From all the posts here and on the 'firewall' newsgroup, I believe I
understand what Aluxe is after.

Certainly we can trace posts here by screen name or IP (of the router) , and
if the IP changes it would make it more difficult to correlate posts if made
under a different name.
When we post, we expect that our message will be read, and the consequence
of that is that we identify ourselves to some degree. Some of us hide our
e-mail address - I don't mind if mine shows.

There was mention made of posts to 'personals' type groups, and not wishing
these posts to be correlated with technical posts. The use of different
'screen names' helps. But there is still the matter of IP address.
Somebody could determine my IP address, and scan all usenet posts for today
and discover that I also posted to the 'windows98' group, because a post
there had the same IP address, even if it was under a different name. If I
had used a different screen name AND had changed my IP address, that
correlation could not be made.
It is worth noting that nobody 'owns' a usenet screen name - I have seen the
same name used by different posters. Therefore posts having the same 'screen
name' suggests but does not proove that they were made by the same person.

It would appear that, in order to cover ones tracks for this scenario, one
would have to do the technical (public) posts from home and either use a
different name with dial up, a public computer, or take the laptop to a
hotspot for the 'personals' posts. These can still be traced to some degree,
but with normal tools could not correlate the technical poster with the
'personals' poster.

This has nothing to do with security, but does grant a measure of privacy.

Comments?

"Stuart Miller" <stuart_miller@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:EouZg.161589$R63.41013@pd7urf1no...
>
> "Aluxe" <aluxelocochon@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1g5u1r8q8ztgp$.1a9ngqoflqnt2.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:19 GMT, David H. Lipman wrote:
> >> All of your subject matter is on COMSEC and alt.computer.security is
> >> the ONLY News Group
> >> you need to post to.
> >>
> > Hi David,
> > I don't know what a COMSEC is but I will look it up.
>
> There is a lot of interesting technical discussion here, but I would like
to
> take a different approach
> From all the posts here and on the 'firewall' newsgroup, I believe I
> understand what Aluxe is after.
>
> Certainly we can trace posts here by screen name or IP (of the router) ,
and
> if the IP changes it would make it more difficult to correlate posts if
made
> under a different name.
> When we post, we expect that our message will be read, and the consequence
> of that is that we identify ourselves to some degree. Some of us hide our
> e-mail address - I don't mind if mine shows.
>
> There was mention made of posts to 'personals' type groups, and not
wishing
> these posts to be correlated with technical posts. The use of different
> 'screen names' helps. But there is still the matter of IP address.
> Somebody could determine my IP address, and scan all usenet posts for
today
> and discover that I also posted to the 'windows98' group, because a post
> there had the same IP address, even if it was under a different name. If I
> had used a different screen name AND had changed my IP address, that
> correlation could not be made.
> It is worth noting that nobody 'owns' a usenet screen name - I have seen
the
> same name used by different posters. Therefore posts having the same
'screen
> name' suggests but does not proove that they were made by the same person.
>
> It would appear that, in order to cover ones tracks for this scenario, one
> would have to do the technical (public) posts from home and either use a
> different name with dial up, a public computer, or take the laptop to a
> hotspot for the 'personals' posts. These can still be traced to some
degree,
> but with normal tools could not correlate the technical poster with the
> 'personals' poster.
>
> This has nothing to do with security, but does grant a measure of privacy.
>
> Comments?

Interesting remarks. Especially when we now see that the FBI wants to force
the ISP's to track the users of their systems.
So what to do about privacy. Concerning your broadband connection to an ISP,
the cable/dsl modem would be the device used to identify you to the system.
This address while it probably can be changed, would probably result in the
ISP blocking your access, as now that address does not match their records.
So realizing that you cannot change that address, changing your own
computers address really does no good, as you could still be identified just
because of your connection to the broadband service. Using a dialup account
may be a bit harder, but you would still have to provide some form of
identification/authorization to log on, hence as a paying subscriber you
really cannot avoid being identified.
The free public hotspots, can remain free but I can see where in the future
they may have you log in to use the system, the room for abuse here is
large, so being tracked while using a free public hotspot may be difficult
at best, unless the providers are forced to implement strict accountability
procedures. I.E you have to show your drivers license to use the system, and
your license number will be associated with the MAC you use to connect. But
that takes a lot of oversight.
So where does that leave people like the OP who desires more privacy.
I see his only avenue would be to use proxy servers while surfing, and some
premium news group posting service that strips his headers and uses there
own headers as a way of remaining semi private.

>
>

Aluxe wrote:
> On 18 Oct 2006 07:14:51 -0700, kingthorin@gmail.com wrote:
> > What you really want to accomplish is scripting a release/renew
> > between your modem and ISP, which is not easily accomplished.
>
> Hi kingthorin,
> I much appreciate your willingness to help and your reasonable ideas.
> What always works is to unplug BOTH the modem & router overnight.
>
> Note an "ipconfig /all" does NOT tell us the new IP address of the ROUTER;
> I have to obtain the new router IP address from my NNTP server posting line
> in my subsequent USENET posts.
>
> Also note that I can't seem to "force" the PPPOE dialup by the router from
> the computer so often I need to unplug and replug in the linksys router to
> force the router to dial into the dsl isp.
>
> Is there any way you know of to force the linksys router to dial into the
> PPPOE account on demand?

You'd have to look at the mechanism in the web admin interface of your
linksys device but you can probably ues a windows version of wget
(http://pages.interlog.com/~tcharron/wgetwin.html) called by a batch
file scheduled through windows task scheduler to do that.

Also I did a quick search and it sounds like some linksys devices have
a "connect on demand" option. (Disable keep-alive, enable "connect on
demand" and set a timeout). So that when your router receives an
outbound request it initiates the PPPoE connection (login) and then
disconnects after the timeout (inactivity) period is passed (ie: 15
mins after it receives the last outbound request). It'll probably
depend exactly which device you have but it sounds like it may be worth
checking out.
This is based on information here: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/6891
(go down to the "Connection Timers" section).

http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/

On 18 Oct 2006 12:17:24 -0700, kingthorin@gmail.com wrote:
>> Is there any way you know of to force the linksys router to dial into the
>> PPPOE account on demand?
> Some linksys devices have a "connect on demand" option.
> (Disable keep-alive, enable "connect on demand" and set a timeout).
> So that when your router receives an outbound request it initiates
> the PPPoE connection (login) and then disconnects after the timeout
> (inactivity) period is passed (ie: 15 mins after it receives the
> last outbound request).

Hi kingthorin,

Oh my. Yes. Finally. You are someone who helps answer the question.

Instead of a cheap off-topic editorial on paranoia, you bared your brains
and bothered to come up with a possible answer to what amounts to a very
simple on-topic technical question. Thank you so very much. It's people
like you that make the Internet so helpful to everyone!

I found all the settings you spoke of in my router.
- I aimed the browser at the router's IP address
- I logged in as the administrator of the router
- I went to "Setup" "Basic Setup" and switched the default from
- "Keep Alive: Redial Period = 30 sec"
- to the new setting of:
- "Connect on Demand: Max Idle Time = 1 min"

Hopefully, a positive result of this technical test of your hypothesis will
answer the question of how to force the router to dial into the PPPoE
account when I power the modem back on after an evening's shutdown.

I'm not quite sure if I fully understand this setting though.
Is this a correct explaination of the "Connect on Demand" setting?

- Assume the DSL modem is shut down for, say, overnight.
- Assume the router was left powered on; as was the computer.
- The goal is to power the modem and attempt a web connection on the
computer and the hope is that this will cause the router to re-initiate the
PPPoE connection to the ISP.

I'm confused about the "max idle time" though. Does that mean that it could
be as long as one minute (given a max idle time setting of "1 min") before
the router initiates the PPPoE connection?

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:29:56 GMT, Stuart Miller wrote:
> There is a lot of interesting technical discussion here, but I would like to
> take a different approach
> From all the posts here and on the 'firewall' newsgroup, I believe I
> understand what Aluxe is after.
....
> [changing the IP address] has nothing to do with security, but does grant a measure of privacy.
> Comments?

Hi Stuart Miller,

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for being a voice of technical reason here.
I agree, we are not talking about security (that was my fault for equating
sescurity to privacy in the original subject line) as you fully understand.

We are only talking about a simple additive action to privacy.

I think (by now), we have definately established (especially in the case of
the tattletale NNTP posting host) that changing the IP address is additive
to privacy.

Thank you for understanding the request and for posting thoughts that
others can comment upon (as I am doing now).

I think we've established (not without argument):
a) The MAC address tattletale bit isn't subtractive to privacy.
b) Changing the MAC address is sometimes additive to privacy.
c) Changing the IP address is sometimes additive to privacy.
d) Changing the MAC address is trivial (takes five seconds).
e) Changing the IP address could be trivial (we're testing now).

I wonder how many of us knew this before this post?
I certainly did not so I thank all of you for edifying all of us.
More facts need to be ascertained; but this is a great start!

On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 07:37:41 GMT, #2 Aluxe wrote:
> I wonder how many of us knew this before this post?
> I certainly did not so I thank all of you for edifying all of us.
> More facts need to be ascertained; but this is a great start!

Well, after a few posts using Outlook Express, Agent, & Xnews, I've come to
the conclusion it's the ISP who is adding the modem's IP address to the
NNTP Posting Host. Sigh.

Please prove me wrong because I'd so very much like it to not be so.

> Hi kingthorin,
>
> Oh my. Yes. Finally. You are someone who helps answer the question.
>
> Instead of a cheap off-topic editorial on paranoia, you bared your brains
> and bothered to come up with a possible answer to what amounts to a very
> simple on-topic technical question. Thank you so very much. It's people
> like you that make the Internet so helpful to everyone!

No worries.

> I found all the settings you spoke of in my router.
> - I aimed the browser at the router's IP address
> - I logged in as the administrator of the router
> - I went to "Setup" "Basic Setup" and switched the default from
> - "Keep Alive: Redial Period = 30 sec"
> - to the new setting of:
> - "Connect on Demand: Max Idle Time = 1 min"

You may want to increase the Max Idle Time a bit. It's pretty simple to
be idle for one minute while you read a web page, news article, if you
answer the phone etc. You don't want to be hammering your ISPs
authentication server everytime you're idle for 1 min.

> Hopefully, a positive result of this technical test of your hypothesis will
> answer the question of how to force the router to dial into the PPPoE
> account when I power the modem back on after an evening's shutdown.
>
> I'm not quite sure if I fully understand this setting though.
> Is this a correct explaination of the "Connect on Demand" setting?
>
> - Assume the DSL modem is shut down for, say, overnight.
> - Assume the router was left powered on; as was the computer.
> - The goal is to power the modem and attempt a web connection on the
> computer and the hope is that this will cause the router to re-initiate the
> PPPoE connection to the ISP.

No it has nothing to do with powering down the modem, you can leave the
modem up. Your router will only be assigned a IP address by your ISP
when it has a valid PPPoE connection. The "Connect On Demand" and "Max
Idle Time" settings tell the router to well simply connect when there
is demand (ie: PPPoE connect/authenticate....which results in you
getting an IP) and then drop the connection (ie: PPPoE disconnect)
after your connection has been idle for x number of minutes. Everything
can remain powered on, if you have no "demand" overnight then you
should exceed the time you've observed and when you establish "connect
on demand" in the morning should attain a different IP. Make sense?

> I'm confused about the "max idle time" though. Does that mean that it could
> be as long as one minute (given a max idle time setting of "1 min") before
> the router initiates the PPPoE connection?
No, Max Idle Time is going to be the time the router takes before
dropping the connection. Like this:
1) Set down at your computer, open IE and try to hit
http://www.google.com, the router sees this as a request for something
outside of your local network and therefore initiates your PPPoE
connection to your ISP and gets you a public IP address.
2) You can now surf, email, etc at your leasure.
3) Once you stop surfing etc (no further request to things outside your
local network) the router will wait for a full minute of inactivity and
then disconnect (drop your PPPoE connection).

Note: Windows Update, MSN Messenger (any instand messenging program)
etc will likely cause a steady stream of traffic and never let you
become "Idle", you'll need to make sure they are disabled when you're
done online or configured so that they aren't doing their own 'keep
alive' functions, etc....

On 19 Oct 2006 05:10:25 -0700, kingthorin@gmail.com wrote:
>> I found all the settings you spoke of in my router.
>> - I aimed the browser at the router's IP address
>> - I logged in as the administrator of the router
>> - I went to "Setup" "Basic Setup" and switched the default from
>> - "Keep Alive: Redial Period = 30 sec"
>> - to the new setting of:
>> - "Connect on Demand: Max Idle Time = 1 min"
>
> You may want to increase the Max Idle Time a bit. It's pretty simple to
> be idle for one minute while you read a web page, news article, if you
> answer the phone etc. You don't want to be hammering your ISPs
> authentication server everytime you're idle for 1 min.

Hi kingthorin,

I love the fact that you are helping to answer the original technical
question (instead of getting into an endless & useless theoretical debate
about paranoia). Thank you for sticking to the topic and for knowing enough
to do so.

My test failed. Obviously I have a new IP address but that was never the
problem. The problem was getting the new IP address (aka NNTP posting host)
without having to power down the router (and the modem, if possible). I had
to power the router off and then back on to get it to initiate the PPPoE
DHCP DSL connection to the ISP.

However, you have told me that I performed the test wrong as I had powered
down the modem (but not the router) in my successful attempt to get the
modem to release its assigned IP address. Releasing the IP address isn't
the problem ... it's getting a new IP address without having to power down
the Linksys router that is the problem.

After reading your post just now, I will try a NEW test. I just took your
suggestion and increased the maximum idle time to 5 minutes (the default).

DOES THIS look like a definitive MAX-IDLE-TIME test procedure?

a. Connect to the Internet, e.g., www.google.com (to ascertain connection)
b. Determine my modem's current IP address (by querying the router)
c. Wait five minute inactive (assume no keep-alive programs are running)
d. The 5-inactive minutes should disconnect me from the PPPoE connection
e. Test the PPPoE connection by again querying the router on port 80
f. At this point, there should be no assigned IP address showing up
g. WAIT FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIKE (but more than the Max Idle Time)
h. Repeat step a above to connect to the Internet by going to google
i. This should "wake up" the router & tell it to dial back into PPPoE
j. Within a few secs, the PPPoE connection should be re-established
k. The proof will be that the google web page reappears in the browser

Is this a valid test procedure to prove whether the PPPoE connection is
being dropped and then reconnected on demand after waiting for more than
the max idle time?