Episode Details

Bezeq, Israel's main fiber provider, does allow customers to bring their own modem — but only approved models, and only after you submit the device's serial number and wait to be provisioned. A listener named Daniel asked three sharp questions: why an ISP would want to control device security down to the model and serial number, how reliable a device-reported serial number is as an authentication signal, and whether serial number spoofing has actually been used to get around checks like this. This episode digs into what an ONT really does on a GPON network, why ISPs insist on exclusive control of hardware you own, and the crucial difference between entitlement and authentication. Along the way: TR-069 remote management, rate limiting enforced inside the modem, the Comcast customer who had to re-register a supported modem every year, and why the cable industry abandoned identifier-based access control for X.509 certificates after getting burned by modem cloning. Episode #805056 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/805056