Myko Hein, 19, uncapped his cable modem last month because the service was too slow for his liking (he was trading software in chat rooms over the 'Net). It took AT&T Broadband only 6 hours to discover his hack and disconnect him from the service for life. The company considered his act “theft of service.”
Hein's message to other users: don't do it, ever. Hein's father is even restricted from using the service, and is not able to telecommute any longer. IDSL, the other high-speed alternative, is too costly for them at over $100 a month.
The process of uncapping a cable modem is typically technically involved, requiring the programming of a DOCSIS configuration file with a special editor, putting up a TFTP server, changing an IP address, and running a DHCP server to trick the cable modem into pulling the config file from a local host. Although some parts of the process have been automated, there are still many hitches … but that's about to change.
OneStep is described as a 30 megabyte monster of a program that rolls up all of the tools needed to perform a cable modem hack into one utility and hides them behind a point-and-click user interface that allows the user to select his/her cable modem make and model, service provider, and new speed (up to 10 mbps). OneStep is headed up by a well-known member of the underground superbroadband world, an unemployed American programmer who heads a how-to chat site and has headed up several publicly released automated uncapping tools. This programmer, who goes by the handle “DerEngel,” states that smart uncappers know how to avoid detection.
AT&T Broadband spokeswoman Sarah Eder stated that the company would not have terminated Hein without warning unless there were aggravating factors, but one of the consequences of uncapping is service termination. Another factor to consider is the anti-social aspect of uncapping, meaning that one person using too much of the bandwidth during peak hours could cause bottlenecks for the rest of the users on that node.
Check out Security Focus Online and our previous news item for more details.
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