zlacker

>>mouse_+(OP)
Back in the days of blaster, if you were connected to a network with infected machines or had a public IP address because you were connected straight into your cable modem, you would get infected in the windows installer before it finished installing. Nowadays, everything is behind NAT and there aren't any infected Windows XP machines left on your local network, so that's not a problem anymore.

>>jmgao+rb4
>Nowadays, everything is behind NAT and there aren't any infected Windows XP machines

All end-user PCs have been behind NAT since the late 90s unless the system was a dialup straggler. Enterprise users raw-dogging the internet only have themselves to blame.

>>snakey+4i4
This is absolutely false. This only became common when wireless networking became ubiquitous, which wasn't until probably a decade later.

>>jmgao+Di4
When I got my first broadband Internet connection my contract explicitly prohibited me from using NAT. Apparently my Internet provider was concerned I would use NAT to connect multiple computers thus “stealing” bandwidth. This concern was not completely unfounded since people sometimes would set up one connection and share it with neighboring apartments. Also having one computer per household was normal back then.

>>Infamo+Vl4
Circa 2003 when we got the first WiFi access point set up (with no password), we started noticing people with laptops appearing next to our homes. It took us a few seconds to realize they found a free WiFi and walked around to find a spot with better signal.