DSL TV question

[so.cal.fan]

Our area recently has been set up for DSL cable.
The old style cable had the potential to be "hacked" into by a black box.
Does anyone know if anyone has developed a similar "invention"
for DSL?
Not that I would want to break the law and get one, just curious.
LOL

I think you might be mixing apples and oranges. A DSL is a high speed data circuit between your PC and a data service provider ( the phone company or DSL provider), to my knowledge it is not used for cable TV. A cable modem on the other hand provides a high speed data connecton over the cable TV wires provided by your cable company to your TV.

In regards to hacking since DSL does not provide cable TV it can't be "hacked into" for the purpose of watching fee based TV programs for free.

On the other hand both the DSL and cable modems are always on and connected to the internet. As long as your PC is turned on, internet hackers have the potential to "hack" into your PC. I believe there are things you can do to safe guard your PC from hackers however.

[so.cal.fan]

Thanks for the explanation.
They set up the cables for digital.
I read with interest your comments on safety on the internet.
I use a mac, so hopefully I am not as vunerable to stuff.
However, we sure had trouble with AOL. We were getting charges on our credit cards, from companies that advertised with them.
We had to change our cards. Quit AOL.
AOL would not let you pay from your checking account, they wanted the credit card! We had 4 charges from places in Florida.
When my husband called the companies, they took off the charges right away, of course, no questions asked.
When I called AOL to complain, they laughed at me, "too bad lady"
What a crap attitude for a large company.

Boy....sounds real ugly, have not had a similar problem.

don't know about the MAC, but I would check it out to see what is necessary to secure your mac from hackers.

There was a thread on the board here with some discusson about how hackers get into a PC and then can set it up to make numerous attempts on a certain web site. One they are tring to bring down. This can be going on without the owners knowledge that the pc/mac is doing this.

[majestyx]

Check into a program called a "firewall," especially if you use a cable or DSL modem. I don't know what programs exist for the Mac, but I'm sure there has to be some programs available for it. In your case, it's tough to tell how your CC number got stolen. If it's not stored somewhere on your computer, then it would seem there's a security issue with AOL's database.

I have a DSL connection and use Black Ice Defender on my PC. You'd be amazed at how many times the computer gets "probed" during the time it's on.

You're better off with a local ISP if you have dial-up service anyway. AOL is way too expensive. Sure they have a lot of value added features, but how many of them do you really use? You'll save a lot of money going with a local ISP and more likely than not, your tech support will be more reliable (i.e. you'll get a hold of them much quicker in case you have problems).

[GR1@HTR]

Good thing about the little Mac is that is is immune to most of those viruses out there...Most of those pesty little germs are .exe files that will not run on the Mac.

Long live da Mac!

[andicap]

PC World recommends Zonealarm to secure against hackers. www.Zonealarm.com