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back to article BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

BT reserves, and makes use of, the right to remotely detect all devices connected to LANs owned by its broadband customers – for their own good, of course. BT Broadband customers can expect to have their network checked any time the operator feels it needs to take a peek to help it provide the service, or when the safety of …

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  1. Harry

    Windows Update

    "BT describes the process as being similar to that offered by Microsoft with Windows Update"

    Not very similar at all. Windows update is a recommended but *optional* facility. Microsoft cannot (or at least, does not) check or update windows components unless the user has *asked* for the service.

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    1. M Gale
      Reply Icon

      Well.

      ...Except for WGA, which as I understand it has been snuck onto people's computers under the guise of a "security update" at least once.

      1 1
  2. Lee Dowling Silver badge
    WTF?

    Well

    Working somewhere that uses BT Business Broadband, I don't think we're at risk. The BT router went into "long-term storage" the second it arrived, for offering crap like free wifi to anyone who walks past, free pass to the BT engineers, etc. and yet no capability to simply forward all packets including DHCP.

    We had replacement modems on order before the boxes even arrived. Like to see them sniff past the modem that connects only to a Linux gateway that does actually, proper, firewalling, NAT and filtering.

    But this is just yet-another-reason not to trust BT equipment. What next? They team up with software companies to snoop your hard drive to see if you're infringing their licenses - all totally "legit" of course. Even speaking as someone whose job involves licensing compliance, that's just totally out of scope of the supply of a broadband line. My MAC addresses are personal, private information and uniquely identify particular items of kit that you have no business knowing. Try that on my networks and see how the lawsuit from my workplace reassures you. You forget that for every user that HAD the device, a thousand users who DIDN'T still had their networks snooped for it. That's not on, no matter how passive or well-intentioned the attempt was.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    TLDR: BT implies OFCOM works for them and the ICO is impotent.

    So no worry about pesky things like prosecutions.

    Nothing to see here.

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  4. Deckchair

    @Sir

    Any 'backdoor' would only need to be a reporting agent they could query in the firmware. I doubt any serious IT organisation would have a system where they would have to actively connect to each router and query its device table.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Well

      I know for a fact O2 do have backdoor accounts into their routers.

      If you google you can find the hidden username and password to get onto the O2 provided routers. This does not show in the web interface, and is not removable from there. I've confirmed this works with the one they supplied me. I managed to get ssh (or perhaps telnet, i forget) working to the device and removed that account. A few days later the router mysteriously reset itself to default settings, including the backdoor account.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Up

        same with be...

        same network/routers as be....

        to steal someone else's comment, Bring your own toys to the party.

        When I was moving to BE, I bought a router from my old ISP to replace my ageing netgear kit as they offered discounted kit for existing customers. the BE box didn't even make it out the box !

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        1. Demosthenese
          Reply Icon

          me 3

          My O2 router has never been taken out of the box. Suspicious lot aren't we.

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      2. dssf
        Reply Icon

        FBI/CIA/MI-5/Mi-6/Marketing, et al?

        How much would you be willing to bet that this benefits MI-5 and MI-6? For years, I've been wondering just HOW the UK kept announcing the interception or foiling of a terrorist plot. Once in a while, even in the USA, there are announcements of foiled attempts at terrror.

        So, I imagine that a number of terrorists or drugs dealers or tax cheats, or whomevers never disconnected their Ethernet from the ISP device when working on files and simultaneously NOT surfing. I bet that (well, maybe $1 bet) MI-5/MI-6 and other unnamed organs either got these backdoors inserted, or they technically know how to abuse diagnostic tools ports. But, for such a door to reset means that SOMEbody has decided that users are not allowed to disable snooping. Apparently, SOMEbody deems that the risk fo blackhats, whitehats, and criminals is trivial compared to the national security mandate to be able to pierce someone else's firewall and wantonly, at-will trespass.

        This kind of attitude which -- I suspect exists in many tech-savvy governments -- is why when I once owned (paid monthly for) a home, before the drywall came up, I installed my own CAT 5 wiring. Since i knew where I wanted the hub, and where I would mainly work from in the home, I had the wire from downstairs connecting from the ISP route upstairs to my own 1 or 2 routers/switches so that I could disconnect the OUTSIDE while keeping my switched/firewalled computers still visible to each other. I also shunned (and still shun) Wi-Fi between my machines, even bluetooth. I only have a bluetooth mouse, but keyboard. Partly it is to avoid dealing with recycling dead batteries, and to guard against having possibly snoopy neighbors. I am not verse in power and signal travel, so it is possible my wired keyboard has poor shielding and leaks more than a bluetooth device might these days. When I sold the house, i informed the tech-savvy buyers of the exact wiring and routes i took and where spare drops could be placed. They loved it. I even gave them pictures of the house as it progressed in construction from dirt lot to finished home.

        Get yourself some bastion firewalls. Don't rely ONLY on the firewall of the computer you're using. Get a DEDICATED firewall.

        What bugs me is that my cell carrier is offering a wifi-only high speed, credit-card-sized mobile broadband modem that has no abilitiy to connect to my laptop via wire/usb. I don't want to spend time dealing with a firewall aimed at keeping others from trying to hack my wireless card if I am out and about in public. I don't yet know how manageable the device is or whether I have firewall features to control. Worries like this are, though, useful: I now surf vastly less in the past few months than I dd prior to paying more attention to these privacy threats and breaches.

        Too bad the ISPs and marketing forces value breaches over security. Their greed to know all feeds right into the hands of various government agencies and even to blackhats and script kiddies. So, it would be fitting if lots of people just got SCARED and simply curtailed their surfing so they could reduce risk to their machines... wait, won't happen. They're them, and I'm me... I don't NEED the net as much as THEY do. But, millions of people who become annoyed like I did could be a problem if we simply consume so much less broadband that we eventually dispose of it. As to those who cannot dispose of it altogether, we can change our CONSUMPTION habits to deprive any A$$holes who already planted jacks into our machines. I don't enable wireless from my machine, and I don't connect it unless something tantalizing is easier to view there than on my handheld.

        I WISH more consumers would WAKE THE HELL UP!

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  5. ZimboKraut
    Linux

    Firewall after router

    I have never trusted the plain router firewalls, and therefor have always added an additional firewall after the router.

    call me paranoid, but it seems, that my gutfeeling was right.

    OK, I don't use BT directly and I have cable redundancy, never the less, my experience shows, that you can never trust a provider supplied device, as they have proven over and over again, that you cannot trust them.

    Anyone who does, either doesn't seem to worry about their privacy (which is their right), or just doesn't have a clue.

    specially in todays day'n age where it is quite common to have a little home NAS or the likes (well actually even that should request credentials)

    Best regards from Finland

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  6. Stuart Castle Silver badge

    I fail to see..

    I fail to see how it is any of BT's business exactly what their customers provide their own home networks through, be it Powerline, Ethenet cable, Wireless or even two cans and a bit of string..

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  7. Mad Mike

    Download Away

    This is absolute gold dust to people. BT have effectively stated they can access your BT Home Hub (at minimum) to the extent that they can scan your (supposedly) secure LAN. So, download away anything you want. If someone accuses you of say, copyright theft, you simply say wasn't me and point the finger at BT support. They deny it and claim to have evidence it's you. Well, they would wouldn't they!! They are also in a position to subvert the logs etc. as well. So, BT can now never prove anything about what happens on your internet connection...........

    Seems like an open invitation to me. All those protecting their innocence after Operation Ore (and without incriminating evidence on their PCs) and using BT connections should start a case now methinks.

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    1. dssf
      Reply Icon

      Download Away, Or Bait and Poison Away?

      Why not procure and deposit onto your OWN, segregated LAN a bunch of nasty virii, worms, and trojans that ONLY sit on THOSE machines. NEVER, of course, put them on your actual production machines or laptops, and keep them isolated from your other machines. Just leave them there as rat traps. They can be non-toxic sticky traps, or they might be corrosive, toxic traps. ANY A&HOLE who inisists on probing and lifting things from your LAN, from wires or air on YOUR side of the DEMARC/CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) DESERVES to be suffering a trashed machine or apparatus used in lifting from your property. Criminal or innocent, you never know who is trying to probe, plant into, or steal from your LAN, so since you are obligated to yourself to keep your gear clean, punish those (whomEVER they are) who are making you have to do all that extra work.

      i don't know if/whether it's legal, or just, but it can bring some personal feeling of JUSTICE.

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  8. Steve Loughran

    How secure is the router login?

    One interesting question here: do all the routers have the same username & login, or different ones. If so, what is the password? That could be quite serious. If not the same, how is it generated after a firmware update and hard reset? It would have to be something predictable.

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    1. airwaffle
      Reply Icon

      ...Or use your own router....

      My 'rents unfortunately use BT so have a wireless router sitting behind the BT supplied router for the simple reason I have never trusted BT and their 'remote access' to their supplied router.

      Scan / hack the second router at your peril BT because that's Computer Misuse!

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  9. karl 15
    Big Brother

    BB

    Bloody NWO

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  10. probedb

    How would this work?

    My dad got a letter and hasn't had them plugged in since he first got them years ago. Since then he's even changed routers. A MAC scan isn't going to help as they've never been plugged into the new router.

    I very much doubt this is how they knew to send the letters. They'll just know who had them when they sent them out surely?

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    E.T. ?

    Why are we all assuming then can inbound scan the network. Wouldn't it be more plausible that the kit was periodically phoning home to a base server at BT?

    Still dodgy, but less so than have a backdoor for inbound "scans" ...

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  12. adnim

    Is this

    legal? Not that legality has had any bearing on their behaviour in the past.

    Bypassing a customer firewall to detect hardware on the LAN?

    If I attempted this on a commercial bank networking infrastructure, do you think the judge would dismiss the case because I was doing it "for the good" of the bank?

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  13. Desktop Mobile
    Big Brother

    O2

    I use O2 & had an issue with the router syncing but no actual internet. Whilst talking to the helpful level 2 engineer I asked him why my wi-fi had just changed from channel 1 to 7 and he said he changed it as 7 was a better channel. I was gob-smacked!

    Having said that SKY freely admitted to being able to browse inside my router albeit I noticed I had to allow the router to respond to ping first.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Coffee/keyboard

      slightly worrying

      i find it slightly worrying that the engineer described channel 7 as a "better" channel. How can he possibly know that without scanning the local area for other wireless kit and detecting what channel they are all on?

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BT router

    I dumped their Thomson router and bought one of my own anyway, so they'd find themselves unable to connect to the open port they use on their own hubs.

    In fairness, had their supplied hub not given us 3 years of dropped connections and other woes, I'd probably still be letting them in.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Easy to detect

    They'd just need to park within a half mile of the BT Vision customer's house and 'tune in' on a radio to tell which version of their dreaded Comtrends is in use. Their signature screech is easy to hear over a wide frequency range and a wide area. Get any domestic portable with a shortwave band on it and try it.

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tr99

    They are probably using TR69/CWMP to manage the homehub/router remotely.

    The BT routers will be checking in with the T69 server to determine if there are any management actions pending.

    So they don't login to the router as such but rather the router phones home and asks if there's anything BT want it to go and do/report on

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    1. The Other Steve
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Indeed, and here is some more information on that

      http://www.comtrend.com/cgi-bin/db-search.cgi?template=News&dbname=product&key2=17&action=searchdbdisplay

      "A soon to be released version of the PowerGrid DH-10PF Ethernet Adapter will also enable one of the main requirements of IPTV operators: a TR-069-compliant powerline adapter. These devices will allow operators to remotely manage every node installed in the network, perform firmware upgrades and access logged data among many other features. "Our service provider customers want to manage every node in the home network without modifying the home gateway or broadband router in any way. Every change made to a gateway or router could delay a deployment by several months, especially if the equipment has to be re-certified.", Harold Fitch stated. "

      (That's from 2008)

      And it was the DH-10P and DH-10PF models that were recalled. So at some point, these units have phoned into a Comtrend auto config server on BT's network, as described here :

      http://www.slideshare.net/mickaelboubala/comtrendacsdspdf

      So it isn't necesarily the hub that's peeking into your LAN, but the comtrend PLT's that are phoning out.

      Then again, as the above poster says, most likely the hub is also TR069 compliant.

      Something that isn't mentioned in the wikipedia article on TR069 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069 ), but is mentioned in the linked Comtrend document is the following :

      "At any time, CT-ACS can request that a CPE initiate a connection to the CT-ACS using the Connection Request notification mechanism. By using the Connection Request, Comtrend ACS can ask the CPE to reboot or restore CPE settings to the factory defaults. Comtrend ACS can also send Grouping Connection Requests to all of the CPEs that belong to a certain CPE Group."

      This is how BT update your HH firmware for example.

      Can it do other stuff ? Oh hell yeah.

      " For example, it can ask the CPE to ping an IP address or hostname and report the result of the ping test."

      And so on.

      So fuck yes, it's an issue, fuck yes, BT could be doing anything in your network that the the TR-069/CWMP setup allows them to do, and fuck yeah, we should be concerned.

      However, this is a general issue regarding TR-069 management, not just specifically BT. Although they are asshats.

      Any device that uses TR-069/CWMP does not belong to you unless you can switch it off. Any network you install such a device on, well, join the dots.

      HTH

      PS. Note particularly in the above quote "Our service provider customers want to manage every node in the home network without modifying the home gateway or broadband router in any way"

      So just swapping out the hub is not going to solve the problem that your PLTs are ratting on you. I have never yet plugged my PLTs in. But I most certainly will be doing so now, into a machine with a network analyser running on it.

      Oh, and this could all be wrong, could be some other mechanism. Glad to hear from anyone who knows better.

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  17. Phil Thompson

    Maybe they're using the PC not the router

    Lots of BT Broadband users blindly load the bloated CD of "desktop help", "remote support" and other tools onto their PCs - anyone checked the capabilities of that ? Getting it to update itself and phone home with results of a scan for powerline device MAC address or perhaps the client software for managing said devices is also installed and used in some way ?

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    1. Refugee from Windows
      Reply Icon

      Avoided this

      Having sorted the setup for a friend, I had no need to install their software as it's not been necessary and I'm aware just what this can do to a system. Since changing the router, it's only had the odd dropout, and the instances of getting a free pint have dropped. Of course, remote access is disabled.

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  18. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Boffin

    Not on BT, but TalkTalk

    However, I don't really trust them either, so the setup goes:

    Phone line -> ADSL modem/router -> CAT5 cable -> Wireless router

    The ADSL modem hands out an IP address to the wireless router, and the wireless router acts as a gateway, assigning IP numbers to any devices attaching to it, along with having the settings to only allow admin access from within the LAN, with things like telnet disabled. Long hard-to-guess passwords are set on both the modem and router. The ADSL modem/router supplied by the ISP sits in a box occupied by various pieces of obsolete tech that I haven't got around to taking apart for my own amusement yet.

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  19. Lloyd
    Stop

    Yeah, but who's going to stop them?

    The ICO? Good one, hahahahahahahahahahahahhaha.

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  20. Gordon861

    Tried BT Router

    I messed with the free BT Router when I first got it due to it giving me a free second phone line. Got bored with that as I don't need two landlines and a mobile so stuck a decent third party router on there instead.

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  21. Jim 59

    Port 161

    On the latest Home Hub, version 3, port 161 is always open and uncloseable. BT won't say why. Their inability to come up with an explanation is more troubling than the actual open port IMO:

    http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/port-161-open-on-home-hub-3/td-p/133207

    The main reason I am still on HH 1. Wonder what version was used in this instance.

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    1. Sir Runcible Spoon
      Reply Icon

      Sir

      ports 161 & 162 (udp usually) are used for SNMP traps/polling.

      SNMP can be used for anything from reporting certain MIBS (identifiers/parameters if you like) right up to full control of the device (including taking copies of the config and even reconfiguring it).

      It should not be open to the internet. It can be password protected, but as this is a BT hub we're talking about it's likely to be a generic one. This is a very big hole and not something I was previously aware of. Thanks for pointing it out.

      Get rid. Soonest.

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      1. Jim 59
        Reply Icon

        SMNP

        I know what ports 161,162 are used for. Is well discussed in the indicated URL. No, my point was BT's reluctance to explain themselves and my concommitant relictance to get a HH3.

        Anybody on BT broadband out there - what would you recommend as a drop in replacement for the home hub ? All my PCs are Linux.

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        1. Sir Runcible Spoon
          Reply Icon

          Sir

          My bad, I didn't look at the URL.

          Personally I use Zyxel modems, but now I'm starting to seriously consider a Cisco 1841 with ADSL card. I'm getting fed up of not being able to interrogate my home network to the same degree that I can my work networks - my wife thinks I must be crap at my job when the home network has problems :)

          I also have a hand-off router/firewall to service my wi-fi requirements, the only connection my external router has to the internal network is a single wire. Assuming anyone gets access to the external router somehow they still have another hurdle to overcome, and it's steeper.

          1 0
  22. umacf24
    Black Helicopters

    For Paranoid Nutters Only

    If you are the sort of tinfoil-hat loony who actually cares about this sort of thing, you should have a hardware firewall between your network and the BT-managed home hub.

    Like I do.

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  23. Gert Selkobi
    Thumb Up

    Trust nobody

    Same as others have said, additional firewall in the mix. Virgin AmazingHub -> OpenBSD pf firewall -> WAP -> IPSec.

    Job's a good 'un.

    3 0
  24. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    WHo's in control?

    Yep these nasty devices can even be programmed remotely (built-in back door) (and I suspect not just BT devices) so the user does not have the ultimate control other than to dump them. In theory, if required by 'the authorities', the notches could be changed so that all of the shortwave, VHF including DAB or FM could be rendered unreadable, making everyone dependent on rubbish spewed out by mainstream media TV. This could mean that radio hams would not be able to communicate independently or provide some immediate emergency cover, if such were needed.

    Could PLT mean total media control by interference? These devices are just another piece of kit which equates to another vulnerability for the user to be very wary of.

    1 0
  25. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Doh!

    If your ISP can remotely maintain the router they supplied, then it's obviously a potential back door into your LAN.

    To get around this just stick a second router behind it, running OpenWRT if you're really paranoid. If you use WiFi, put it on the second router for obvious reasons. Don't forget to VPN the WiFi connections - Your neighbours will certainly be devoting a lot of time to examining your spreadsheets, powerpoints, and other files of interest.

    Analysis of your bitstream will still give your ISP, and TFOLAO if it's a desperately slow week, a reasonable picture of what's behind the second router, excepting devices that don't interact with the Internet, so you should use one of those VPN/Tor anonymiser services - Some routers can be set up to always create a VPNed PPTP link to your chosen service, and rotate your IP and apparent location on a regular basis. Finally, you should get morbidly obese, grow a full beard, buy an iPhone (4 in white, of course), and sigh at it ostentatiously in Italian cafés whilst sweating like a barrel of pigs, to foil honey traps.

    You can't be too careful...

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  26. Anteaus

    IPv6, anyone?

    Potentially much more of an issue when all internal devices have discrete public IP addresses. In that case it will be possible to track which IP address is putting-out a particular class of packet. And, a lot more besides. It may even lead to a scenario where certain ISPs limit the number or type of devices you are allowed to use on your internal LAN.

    Because of the automatic router discovery, I imagine it will also be much more difficult to prevent devices which have no right or business in connecting to the Internet from doing so.

    0 0
    1. dssf
      Reply Icon

      Remember the time when the ISP limited the number of machines on a customer's LAN?

      They issued the disc which installed the connectivity software. I think that the software must've talked to each computer on the LAN, and some sort of limiter code would deprive the "extra" computers.

      I refused to install that SHIT on my machines. I argued with them over the phone that it was none of the Z*&)*())#@ business how many machins were ON MY LAN, behind the CPE, behind MY FIREWALL that was between me and them.

      Sadly, these companies hire stupid, lackey, or unintelligent people who toe the party line and refuse to offer ANY support. Sometimes, even they will refuse to simply ping your router (which they supplied) to help you verify whether or not the packet fails are inside your LAN when you suspect nothing's getting out. Sometimes, they're likely dropping your packets (intentionally or due to local area failure, such as excuse told to me "Oh, someone ran off the highway and the car crashed into a relay box..." ), and it becomes infuriatingly enraging when they INSIST on bullshit scripted stuff:

      ISP: Okay, now I need you to reboot your computer...

      Me: Say WHAT? I'm running Linux. I don't NEED to reboot to get my NIC to work.

      ISP: Oh, we don't support Linux

      Me: You don't NEED to - you just need to supply provision my/your router so MY router can talk to YOUR router.

      ISP: Well, I need to diagnose your machine...

      Me: YOU'RE NOT **GETTING INTO MY MACHINE**. You'll see traffic from your router when I get connectivity. All 8 of my machines could at one point individually see the Internet..

      ISP: We don't support 8 machines...

      Me: You DON'T NEED TO; I'm not simultaneously surfing with all 8.

      ISP: Well, I cannot troubleshoot computers except windows or Mac OS....

      Me: So, basically, you're screwing Linux users when you know they refuse to play with windows...

      And on and on andn on

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  27. The Alpha Klutz

    not the only ISP?

    As I recall, my ISP, BE, with whom I am quite happy, do configure their supplied routers such that they can "dial in" and perform "tests". As I recall, there was even a flaw in the software that was exposed on this very site.

    I am not bothered because I use my own router. I even went as far as to choose the firmware it runs and in doing so I believe that I have accepted responsibility for any vulnerabilities in it. Well it's only fair.

    Of course, a BT customer who is not technically savvy has no way to know what BT is capable of doing through their router and there is certainly a case to be made for ISPs to be open about their policies with regards to remote administration of the supplied routers.

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  28. Charlie 3
    Alert

    I disagree with almost everyone!

    BT home broadband is a fully managed service. This means that I thoroughly expect them to detect and patch vulnerabilities in my BT supplied hardware. It is very clear that they have remote management capabilities to patch the firmware, so why are we attacking them for warning customers who are using dangerous BT supplied hardware using what is almost certainly a passive scan (the managed home hub is a DHCP server and a switch so it knows what's connected without any additional snooping).

    2 5
    1. Jim 59
      Reply Icon

      BT

      Why would BT, in their shining innocence, be reluctant to answer customer questions ? If a big company is furtive, it is nearly always bad for you. If they were doing it for your benefit they would trumpet it from the rooftops.

      3 0
    2. SoftFox
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: I disagree with almost everyone!

      But do you seriously expect it to stop at that ? This is BT remember who saw nothing illegal in Phorm until advised otherwise

      Its situations such as these that constantly erode privacy etc. The actual initial 'feature' is usually some innocent sounding benefit, then the next feature is added, then the next etc

      Mission Creep (in military terms) is the problem

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  29. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    So BT has full access to my HomeHub?!

    The BT HomeHub's web console is supposedly protected by an Admin password which only I know (accessible internally only via http://192.168.1.254), and this provides access to configure MY internal network which connect to it (via wireless or RJ45).

    What the hell are BT doing connecting to the Hub to checkout MY network?! More importantly, HOW are BT doing this.

    The internal connections to the Hub are my business - they are fuck all to do with BT.

    If I want to connect an IP addressable potato to my network, that's my business. BT can fuck right off!

    Any illusion of security on the HomeHub has been shattered, when BT can console onto it and read MY MAC addresses, MY IP leases, & scan MY network for attached devices - it's is a disgrace and an invasion of privacy.

    4 1
  30. ezo
    Grenade

    Not pretending I know how this works but...

    Seeing as how the vision box runs some sloppy M$ carp and actively interacts with the vision platform perhaps the data comes from this device rather than the hub directly ?

    Ok back to slagging BT please.

    0 0
  31. T J
    WTF?

    Your own router?

    You can't use your own router? Or does BT have some stupid clause insisting on using theirs?

    0 0
    1. Sir Runcible Spoon
      Reply Icon

      Sir

      Of course you can use your own router. Until the Phorm disaster that's exactly what I did - used a Zyxel.

      Just make sure you make a note of your username/password and channel details and you can set the link up with any ADSL router/modem.

      2 0
  32. Head
    Thumb Down

    Hmmm

    You know, if this happened ANYWHERE else in the world, the ISP would get class actioned within 5 seconds flat?

    Not because people are out to make easy money (well, some would be...) but because an ISP has no right what so ever to get past my router. What I do on my network is up to ME.

    And to keep things relevant in the UK, would this not be labeled 'hacking' by any chance?

    1 0
  33. Steve Evans

    Ha!

    Having just got a Home Hub 3 last week, I can only envy the "victims" of this intrusion. The wall-wart of my HH3 threw so much RF down the ring mains that my previously reliable Zyxel powerline adapters refused to communicate!

    Unplug the HH3 power adapter and suddenly they can handshake and work again.

    Luckily 12v 1amp power adapters are pretty common in my house, so the BT supplied one was quickly consigned to the bin.

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