NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Verizon's clever FIOS router NAT table limitation, "DoS yourself at will with p2p"
Lauren, et al Verizon FIOS' delivered Actiontec router (a beast of a wireless NAT box w/ a 533mhz proc and somewhere north of 200megs of ram if I recall correctly) has a firmware limitation of ~1024 NAT table entries. Perfect for email reading, and web surfing. Once you start up any peer to peer app (pick any app with loads of connections), the Actiontec holds the first NAT entries for four minutes, even if you overrun the table. Thus, once you even try to bring up your favorite web page, you've already DoS'ed yourself. Stop everything, and in 4 minutes, you're back in business. http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r17679150-Howto-make-ActionTec-MI424WR-a-network-bridge (you then have a 75watt NIM in place....MoCa to Ethernet. Of course, this also disables the VOD service, and guide data for STB's in the house. I didn't notice that side effect immediately as I have a couple Tivos in place which already provide a channel guide.) I've personally verified the validity of the actions "accidentally" after my own FIOS install and saw the exact error message "nat Error : connection pool is full" (or something similar, it's been a while) once the connections reach 1k entries or so. The difference between this and most other SOHO routers (even far less capable devices) is others typically "immediately" FIFO the NAT table and do not hold entries for minutes at a time. A slowdown, perhaps, but you can still check your email. The Actiontec isn't so kind. Cheers, andy burnette p.s. compared to comcast's alleged forging of packets, I'd call the verizon solution far more clever. No network appliances or sandvine services needed to throttle traffic that may be less desirable, or use more network resources. More like a flash grenade than a smoking gun. Big flash, and you don't have a clue what hit your connection;-) _______________________________________________ NNSquad mailing list information: http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad