mmk92 Hello guys, my current ISP is a local "cable guy" that provides me with a semi-stable unlimited 512kbps internet connection. I have absolutely no expertise in networking nor network security, so I was wondering, is it possible for him or anyone else using his service to intercept connections from our side to the internet? ie Steal passwords, personal information..etc and if so what precautions do you guys recommend I should do to secure our connection?
amkahal all passwords sent as plain-text are seen by him, all encrypted data are safe. actually, most of applications encrypt their data nowadays.
Hybrid In case of websites, everything that is not sent over HTTPS is not encrypted, and thus is sent as plain text. Some examples, I believe msn (live messenger) does not use any encryption for chatting, skype uses encryption, FTP is not encrypted, http are not encrypted So basically if you're entering your password on a website, check the URL on top, if it says https, then you're safe, otherwise it can be read by your provider, your provider's provider, and all the way to the destination server.
DNA then dont worry your data is secured, but be sure to use opendns (208,67.222,222) or google public dns(8.8.8.8).
amkahal DNA wroteis your connection via pppoe? when using PPPOE, the data is secure between the user and the provider, so no one can sniff the data, but when coming to provider, PPPOE doesn't help you.
nuclearcat PPPoE is not secure. Sometimes MPPE is used there, but usually all ISP disable it due performance and stability reasons.