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On 01/16/2014 02:55 PM, Max Mehl wrote:
Hi there,
maybe you followed the Compulsory Routers topic in Germany during the last months [1] and even read my blog entry about the entanglements between Compulsory Routers and the latest NSA leaks [2].
tl;dr: Compulsory Routers are routers provided by Internet Service Providers which cannot be replaced because of technical or legal barriers. This causes on the one hand many problems with competition, technical innovation, and compatibility, but on the other hand also great security risks for everyone of us: If we and many others are forced to use one router model, ISPs create monocultures which can be attacked more easily by miscreants and special tools by intelligence agencies.
I know the situation in Germany pretty well because I worked on this issue. But gaining some knowledge of the ISPs' regulations in other countries is harder than I thought in the first place.
Could you please give me some insights if there are ISPs in your country with Compulsory Router policies? Or maybe you want to share your thoughts about this topic at all and the implications for Free Software users.
I have a fiber box, a socalled residential gateway or Home Access Gateway which supplies phone, Internet and TV.
Should that be considered as a compulsory router?