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Question out of curiosity. I once swapped a TPLink media converter between two homes, both using the same ISP, to debug internet issues and to see if that would

by retired 9mo ago

Question out of curiosity. I once swapped a TPLink media converter between two homes, both using the same ISP, to debug internet issues and to see if that would improve the situation. Did I do something incredibly illegal? And did my ISP get confused seeing my media converter on the other side of town?

fc417fc802 9mo ago
Illegal? No, at least not in any sane jurisdiction. It's no different than moving a SIM card between phones. Confused? Maybe but probably not. It depends on how they track things. An ISP I had in the past tagged subscriber accounts on the OLT side.
direwolf20 9mo ago
This wouldn't be criminally illegal anywhere unless done with some sort of fraudulent intent, but maybe in some places the ISP could make you swap them back.
ewoodrich 9mo ago
When I was a kid I used to pack my house's cable modem in a backback and bring it to my friend's house a couple miles away when I'd visit to play Xbox Live. My dad had a back-up dial-up connection for emails and mom didn't use the internet very much so usually wouldn't mind unless he needed to work. I remember this working at greater distances in other places occasionally too. Earlier, in the dial-up era, my dad didn't feel like paying for internet at home and work, so after school I would call his office and ask his secretary if he had left for his evening meetings yet. If so, she'd disconnect his dial-up connection and I'd get a couple hours to myself after school. We didn't have two phone lines at home so I'm not sure what happened if he needed it unexpectedly. I think he also had a by-the-minute service as a backup or maybe his partner in the office had a separate plan? This was all done under agreed rules I only vaguely remember so must not have been a frequent problem. Always funny to think back to that era when internet wasn't assumed to be a 24/7 thing and losing internet for a day wasn't the end of the world...

by retired 9mo ago

fc417fc802 9mo ago

Illegal? No, at least not in any sane jurisdiction. It's no different than moving a SIM card between phones. Confused? Maybe but probably not. It depends on how they track things. An ISP I had in the past tagged subscriber accounts on the OLT side.

direwolf20 9mo ago

This wouldn't be criminally illegal anywhere unless done with some sort of fraudulent intent, but maybe in some places the ISP could make you swap them back.

ewoodrich 9mo ago

When I was a kid I used to pack my house's cable modem in a backback and bring it to my friend's house a couple miles away when I'd visit to play Xbox Live. My dad had a back-up dial-up connection for emails and mom didn't use the internet very much so usually wouldn't mind unless he needed to work. I remember this working at greater distances in other places occasionally too. Earlier, in the dial-up era, my dad didn't feel like paying for internet at home and work, so after school I would call his office and ask his secretary if he had left for his evening meetings yet. If so, she'd disconnect his dial-up connection and I'd get a couple hours to myself after school. We didn't have two phone lines at home so I'm not sure what happened if he needed it unexpectedly. I think he also had a by-the-minute service as a backup or maybe his partner in the office had a separate plan? This was all done under agreed rules I only vaguely remember so must not have been a frequent problem. Always funny to think back to that era when internet wasn't assumed to be a 24/7 thing and losing internet for a day wasn't the end of the world...