AT&T's SMART Hub

[Carlo Milono]

Being interested in 10BASET, LANs and security, I have been reading about
AT&T's SmartHUB;  knowing AT&T's current StarLAN 10 and the rigorous EMI/RFI
testing that their lab's did, I was intrigued by the security features that
are built into this new product.

Without violating *any* IEEE specs, those guys have made a thirteen-port
Digital Multi-Port Repeater that sends packets of data ONLY to the correct
port.  It seems that the hub learns about the attached address, and in real
time, forwards information to the destination, with 'bogus' data on all
other ports.  This means that you cannot 'snoop' on the net passively, and
anyone trying to add a new address would be blocked.  As I understand it,
the actual data (like your login/password) is replaced with alternating
1's & 0's, except to the host you are connecting to.

In essence, it matches the data's destination address with each node's
authorized MAC address...

There are other features, such as remote administration via SNMP, with 
Automatic Map Generation (I could use that!), User Movement Tracking,
firmware that is upgradeable via the net, a real-time traffic monitor,
remote control of the ports (LI, and something about extending distance).

Does anyone out there have any 'hands-on' experience with this product?
Inquiring minds want to know!  I am also interested in the new IEEE 
802.3 Hub Management specification, which I believe is currently in 
draft form (which this product also uses....)



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