Hi Chris Clark, Wow. Even though you didn't quite answer the specific question, you DID go into a thorough detail on how to do the job better in a variety of ways.
I fully agree with almost all your points; and I partially agree with the rest as explained below (for others to benefit from the conversation).
Understood. But, as you noted, that's a LOT more effort than just unplugging the router momentarily (which is what I do today to accomplish my goal). Actually, if I just found a router with an on/off switch, THAT would be work just fine too! I didn't know that was a desired feature when I originally purchased my Linksys router. In the future, a basic on/off switch is on my list of router niceties.
I only partially agree with you here. For you, and for most of the people who posted, changing the IP assigned to you provides no value. But, for me, where my ISP reports to the whole world my assigned IP address in every post, it does provide additive value for the amount of work involved (currently that work is merely unplugging the router momentarily after a night's rest).
I don't actually post on alt.personals, by the way. That was just an example to explain the "why" I was asking how to force the router to dial into my PPPoE connection on demand. I didn't want to get into a discussion of why ... it's all the nice people who responded who insisted we discuss the why before we discuss the how. So, I told them why by using analogies (some automatically assumed I was a criminal, paranoid, or worse!) :) LOL.
I think we've discussed the "why" to death ... if someone doesn't understand the why by now (yes, I know you understood), then they most likely won't ever get to the how (which is a much simpler question, albeit non emotional).
Yup. We proved it time and time again. Notice each day my nntp posting host changes? It is 100% correlated with the IP address my ISP assigns me. It doesn't matter which software I used (I tested Forte Free Agent, 40Tude dialog, and Outlook Express). If anyone KNOWs the trick to tell the ISP to not use my IP address as my NNTP posting host ... THAT would be a conversation worthy of having!
Or, I can just tell my router to dial into PPPoE every morning :)
Again. These were just examples. Do folks really think someone who wishes to hide their IP address is going to actually provide "real" targeting information to answer a wholly unrelated, yet still very personal, set of errant questions of why I want my router to dial into a PPPoE account on demand?
The made-up examples were illustrative of the only point I had which was that all my posts today under any name can be collected by the IP address for me (but not for most of you).
At the moment, the "cost" of changing my IP address is momentarily rebooting the router (sometimes it takes a few cycles). You are precisely agreeing with me in that I am trying to get that "effort" down to zero by intelligent setup of the router (to make it dial into the PPPoE account on demand).
I think I've set the router to do that so we are testing it now (it failed the first test, but, my test may have been flawed as I had shut down the modem).
It's more like the ISP is putting my name tag (i.e., my assigned DHCP IP address) over my shower in a very public place where everyone else is taking a shower ... but their (and your) ISP doesn't put their/your name tag over their/your shower so folks are not concerned with my problem with it because they don't have the same problem.
I think we've established that this is additive to security. Of course, we all know that a security camera can record that you were there and that someone can walk by and watch what you're doing (think tempest) ... but what we were talking about specifically was the PACKET traffic.
I think we've reliably established the only thing that the PACKET traffic reveals about you (other than the content which is likely more revealing overall in a global sense) is that you CHANGED your MAC address.
Thousands of identity theft victims believed as you do. I understand your point, and you understand mine, so we can just agree to disagree that setting up a router to automatically dial into a PPPoE account on demand is pointless (I believe it isn't; you believe it is).
Sigh. You do understand the situation well. So do I. It all boils down to the shower-curtain analogy. THEY don't have THEIR assigned IP address on their shower stall in the public shower; I do.
That makes my situation different than most of theirs. I know you understand that. But they (seemingly) fail to understand that; yet, in their willingness to help (which I do appreciate) they try to put me in their shower slippers instead of the other way around.
It will. For the five seconds it takes to change the MAC address, the security is additive and provides good ROI.
Please realize I never said it would. All you'd need to do is tempest monitoring or security cameras or food receipts or interviewing the hotel employees, etc. I KNOW that. That was NEVER the issue. Why people can't get that in their minds (yes, I know you understand), is beyond me. All I was asking on the MAC address question was about the tattletale bit.
Some people, sounding very knowledgeable, say there is "no such thing"; while others, sounding just as knowledgeable sare "there is such a thing". From what I read (and posted the references), there is such a thing but I asked the jury to help me here as we already determined changing the MAC address prior to initating a public hotspot connection IS additive.
I disagree with this whole set of statements (including the first line).
You don't just want to be read ... you want the answers (what good is being read without getting the answer????).
If you want the answer to the question, then you ask good questions and you respond promptly, accurately, and courteously to all questions that try to flesh out the problem ... and then you diligently try the viable suggested solutions.
Can anyone say I am not?
In summary ... I asked many times how to force the router to dial into the PPPoE account on demand ... and I am in the middle of tests from the one or two answers which provided how to do that ... I hope these tests work ... I'll know tomorrow morning after the router and modem have been down for a few hours.
My IP adddress is current: NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.110.16.49
Tomorrow, if it's different ... then we will have succeeded and I will thank you all for your kind help!