I'm shocked this answer has so many upvotes. No, a MAC address is not close to a phone number. No two people have the same phone number, and I can't just edit my phone number to be someone else's number.
"two network interfaces connected to two different networks can share the same MAC address"
"Many network interfaces, however, support changing their MAC addresses"
Yeah I was lazy with saying ipv32 just to mean something excessively long. I didnt want to say ipv6, since I kinda think it needs to at least be 64bits (edit: ipv6 is actually 128bits), and really for a public-private key pair it should be larger, so more like 512 to avoid anything like the v4 v6 cacatestrophe again in 20 years with post quantum forms of asymetric key challenges. But I didnt feel like writing all that out.
I'm with you. I knew I'd get people not reading and say "that's the ip address", but MAC address? 🤦♂️
I meant "in the same way that phone numbers are unique to phones (not perfectly unique, some phones have dual Sim, some have no sim, sometimes a Sim changes numbers after contacting the provider, etc)"
Its just typing all that^ in a title is kinda long.
EUI-64 IPv6 (and why its not a reality) though is kinda what I'm curious about. But not really because, even under that spec, its still not static like a phone number. I want to know why networks were not created in a way where I can send a message to a laptop regardless of what WiFi its connected to (assuming it is connected and online).
Same people who decide phone numbers and domain names. We already have central registries, why does it being a computer make it harder to have a central authority?
If I were an engineer in the past, trying to send a message back to an endpoint (e.g. a server response) I would've reached for everything having a static IP, same as the EID system with phones, instead of the DHCP multi-tier NAT type system with temp addresses.
I'm all but certain they didnt do it for privacy reasons at the time.
Sure, I'll change the title to say "phones have unique phone number (b/c sim cards), why don't computers have an equivalent?" I didnt mean one phone == one phone number.
With VOIP I can get phone calls even without cell service, even behind a NAT. My question is why is the network designed in such a way where that is possible, but I can't buy a static address that will persist across networks endpoint changes (e.g. new wifi connection) such that I can initiate a connection to my laptop while it is behind a NAT.
The IP doesn't persist across network hops (cell tower to cell tower) and the MAC address doesnt have one verified owner. A phone number is both verified having one owner and persists across network hops.
AFAIK static public-facing IP addresses are limited to a physical location. It would work if my laptop never left my house but as soon as I take it to the airport its no longer accessible. People who try to connect to the static ip would just get a message saying the address timed out.
Fair, I could have said fully qualified number, including country code.
And also fair, instead of saying a MAC could be edited, I should've said each phone number has one global owner, while each MAC address could have many owners.
This I'm interested in, because its at the edge/limits of my knowledge when it comes to domains and cellular networking.
Are you saying if cell phones had a larger address space, let's say 32 digits base 10, and every device was given a cell phone number, it would overwhelm the existing infrastructure?
You're right it depends on the definition of phone number, and I edited the original post to try and be more clear that I meant the phone number including the country code and area code.
If you're talking about something other than country/area code though, then that's news to me.
So basically VOIP is "cheating" because its not actually handled by the network directly, the phone company pays for always-online servers, and phone(s) reach out to those server every time they change networks, in order for servers to be able to route calls to them.
Which also means! it is possible to do the same thing for computers, but it requires having
A static IP
An always online server
The device needs a daemon that tries to connect to an always online server, and authenticates itself
That server needs to manually reroute traffic (through a VPN or some other means) from the static IP address to the device, wherever it might be
Which also explains why general network providers wouldn't want to create the infrastructure. Even if universal addresses were given to each device, which simplifies DHCP and address-leasing, and shortens time it takes to handshake with the network, all of that is less of a cost than the infrastructure needed track of devices as they change networks. (And that's on top of ISP's being slow to change from the legacy approach of local networks and desktops).
^ which is more the conversation I wanted to have but didnt really get with this post.
Thats a sizable edit!
Yeah 😅 I didnt want it to be this complicated of a question, but I didnt see how else to explain that current addressing systems don't meet the same need as a phone number.
If I'm understanding correctly, you're saying that right now the network doesn't have an exhaustive table of IP addresses to physical locations. It has a cache, and a hierarchy, and the path to a location of the IP is fluid.
But a system where every device could be directly contacted/identified like a Sim card, would effectively require a complete table of "what network is device ABC at". A table that is updated every time the device changes network connections. It would be like trying to change domain name to point to a different IP address.
The problem is, updating a domain to point to a new IP takes hours or days not seconds, so doing that every time a phone changes WiFi is not practical.
Thank you for such a long and detailed post! I indeed did not know about things beyond the SIM, and I didn't know about the extra details about the country codes either. That is extremely interesting to me.
With the phone spoofing though, does that mean two factor with a phone number is basically useless? If I had authentication based on a MAC address, it would take seconds to break it. But I think, and sure hope, that auth based on phone numbers is more secure.
I think your domain name answer -- that for the most part computers didnt need them -- is a very satisfying answer.
I'm currently writing a report in using Overleaf. As I'm getting the premium version for free through my Uni, I've had no problems so far. Now I'm working in a place with unstable internet and using Overleaf has become very annoying....
You should learn the nix lang, flakes, zero to nix, etc and try not to get bogged down in the Nix/Aux stuff. Be prepared to wait for things to settle down on that side.
[TOTP] Simple to setup / create, doesn't depend on 3rd party ...
Actually I'm worried its a bit TOO easy to create. I don't need a bulletproof/airtight system but what's stopping highschooler from installing bluestacks, downloading the AUTH app, and then handling 10,000 TOTP requests for different bot accounts.
PoW sure, but like what's the tool name. Rolling my own PoW sounds not-smart. I've messed with metamask a bit but last I check isn't real practical for mobile.
While I'm really glad to hear about it, I think it would work great for DDOS detection, I don't know that it works for preventing spam accounts. I'm pretty sure puppeteer with GPT4 could check that box no problem.
Its quite a bit more, but I wouldn't blame you for making the comparison.
Side note: unless you're a dev really trying to get in on bleeding edge stuff, ignore the hype. The IPFS team is doing great, but there's a lot of work left to do.
The torrent TLDR is; theres a lot of quality-of-life things missing from torrents (if they were going to be loaded like webpages) and it turns out fixing some of those quality of life things requires solving some pretty hard technical challenges, even if they don't feel much different to the end user. Things like decentelized discovery, content address hashing (best thing since sliced bread), merkel trees for de-duplication, and change detection.
Please post one top-level comment per complaint about Lemmy. You can reply with ideas or links to existing GitHub issues that could address the complaints. This will help identify both common complaints and potential solutions....
The "front page" of most instances are not interesting to average people or to professionals (e.g. local gov that wants to go open source, like those switching to Mastodon).
Part is lemmy's hot-sort is basically broken as a ranking, another part is bad language filters, another part is that major communities here (fediverse, Linux memes, star trek memes, science memes, etc) are off-putting to out-of-group people because of so many in-group jokes. Its a hard fix.
You should watch the rest, especially the ending, there are some great quotes in there.
"There's so much freedom in [suburb]. There's no shops, cafes, theaters, places to eat, schools, or even people. But uhh, that's all part of the freedom; you have the freedom to go somewhere better! like [15min city name]"
I tried a couple license finders and I even looked into the OSI database but I could not find a license that works pretty much like agpl but requiring payment (combined 1% of revenue per month, spread evenly over all FOSS software, if applicable) if one of these is true:...
This is pretty cool. I've got a couple repos that Microsoft uses for VS Code. I switched one of them to GPLv3, but maybe I'll switch the other to this license.
I think we can agree "Good reseach" is in the how-its-done. I wish journals would chose/require/verify the how-its-done (time frame, resources, hypothesis, method etc) but after that be contractually required publish whatever conclusion is discovered by the team/project they picked and verified.
I've started to hate SUV, MUV and MPV. I've been thinking about how buses may be an ideal transportation, but in reality, it will probably not be feasible to have an entire transport system running on buses, right? Maybe a bit of rickshaws and mini-taxis too? And also compact private vehicles?...
I think once you get down to the size of vehicles like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2oD1ZHNMFE then they become naturally modular/replaceable. At least in the same way that bikes are. I don't think people really create "modular" bikes they are just naturally swappable. Of course standards are helpful, and I think there is a total lack of standards for golfcart sized enclosed vehicles.
Same (sunlight alarm clock, getting up super early to compensate, and male) but also I have a heater on a timer-socket. When its super hot and bright its hard to stay in bed.
Hello everyone, first post over here, I'm a junior dev that was working on an open source picture organizer based on location groups within sub-directories, like streets and cities (inferred from EXIF geotags being extracted and sent to a reverse geocoding API) which I've first coined as GeoPicSorter (outlined in its home page)....
I like the IPFS technology as an idea, I can pin my files I guess, but I don't know any communities or services that I wanna use that leverage IPFS....
The one thing I use it for is lesspass (if you've heard of it then see the note at the bottom). It is a site that hashes content (site, username, password) to, somewhat problematically, generate a new password deterministicly.
I downloaded the HTML, verified they're not doing anything shady, and then put the HTML file on IPFS so that 1. I could self-host and always get it even if their site was down, but also 2. Know that they didn't update the site and suddenly start harvesting peoples master passwords.
The bigger usecase for IPFS though would be for something like Nix with people being able to share precompiled binaries through IPFS (which is in the works). IPFS more of a foundation tool, not an end-user tool.
Side note: while lesspass doesnt live up to the hype, but it can be useful... I mean useful if you don't really use it as intended.
Why don't computers have "computer-numbers" equivalent to phone numbers
Why doesn't every computer have 256 char domain name, along with a private key to prove it is the sole owner of the address?...
What are some good Overleaf (Latex) alternatives?
I'm currently writing a report in using Overleaf. As I'm getting the premium version for free through my Uni, I've had no problems so far. Now I'm working in a place with unstable internet and using Overleaf has become very annoying....
NixOS forked ( aux.computer )
https://hachyderm.io/@jakehamilton/112355361353931366
What's something you'll never get the store brand/generic of?
Web Devs: is there a phone-number-less AUTH that still prevents bots?
I make websites...
maybe I'm missing something but isn't ipfs just BitTorrent with extra steps
Maybe I'm too dumb and don't understand but it seems to me it's just like that but with end to end encryption and hashing....
What are your complaints about Lemmy?
Please post one top-level comment per complaint about Lemmy. You can reply with ideas or links to existing GitHub issues that could address the complaints. This will help identify both common complaints and potential solutions....
15 Minute Cities: A DISASTER waiting to happen ( www.youtube.com )
Seriously fuckcars you need to hear this. Have we been fighting for the wrong side the whole time/???
Is there a License that requires the user to donate if they make revenue?
I tried a couple license finders and I even looked into the OSI database but I could not find a license that works pretty much like agpl but requiring payment (combined 1% of revenue per month, spread evenly over all FOSS software, if applicable) if one of these is true:...
I have attempted science. ( mander.xyz )
Opinion on modular vehicles with standardized parts?
I've started to hate SUV, MUV and MPV. I've been thinking about how buses may be an ideal transportation, but in reality, it will probably not be feasible to have an entire transport system running on buses, right? Maybe a bit of rickshaws and mini-taxis too? And also compact private vehicles?...
Can you all relate to this? I definitely fall into this category ( lemmy.world )
Here is the full article
Looking for directions to re-write my program
Hello everyone, first post over here, I'm a junior dev that was working on an open source picture organizer based on location groups within sub-directories, like streets and cities (inferred from EXIF geotags being extracted and sent to a reverse geocoding API) which I've first coined as GeoPicSorter (outlined in its home page)....
What do you currently use IPFS for?
I like the IPFS technology as an idea, I can pin my files I guess, but I don't know any communities or services that I wanna use that leverage IPFS....