On Sun, 9 Dec 2001, Manuel Bouyer wrote:

> > Questions to the world:  Do cable modem networks create private
> > virtual circuits to the "central office" as it were?  If Pete's rl0
> > were in promiscuous mode, could he see his neighbors' traffic?  And
> > do the terms of service with his provider include the commandment,
> >
> > "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's traffic?"
>
> No, cable network behaves as a broadcast medium (e.g. plain old ethernet).
> So he can see his neighbors' traffic from his interface.

Except that some (most?) cable modems filter the traffic and only deliver
packets that are destined for inside (the MAC address of the device(s?)
connected to the modem, and the broadcast address).  Atleast, any time
I've done a tcpdump on a cable-modem interface, I've only ever seen
extra broadcast packets.

Rick