2005-01-03 04:32Z
What commercial hardware device or devices,
including manufacturer, model, retail source, and price,
from most to least effective, favoring low price,
can I apply between the 60Hz 20A 120VAC power line
and my notebook computers, printer, scanner, burners, etc.
that will give me as close to as much
electrical isolation from any possible
unwanted power-line networking by neighboring nerds as
an inverter powered by car storage batteries?

The closest I have been able to imagine
is an EMI filter and/or an isolation transformer
with Faraday shielding between the coils,
but I've found no assurance that either or both would work.

It is as though local geeks have at times been able to
monitor my dialup online activities and possibly
access my HDD information or
network with my notebooks and equipment. In defense,
I have installed a current version firewall,
I use SSL surf proxy, webmail, and usenet, and
I power my gear through an inverter from car storage batteries.
Still, it is as though someone can at least
sniff the https domains to which I connect and possibly
act as middleman in my https connects,
detect radiated information from my equipment, or even
disrupt or interact with my equipment through EMF radiation.
The car storage batteries have insufficient capacity to
comfortably power all of my equipment,
so I want to filter my AC connection for my use
without providing it as an additional networking path.

---

Clarification of Question by om3-ga on 06 Jan 2005 07:00 PST

2005-01-06 15:00Z
Thank you 
macotaku-ga
and
purpleprogrammer-ga
for your comments.
I have taken your advice and have ordered for under $200 a
Tripp-Lite LC-2400 Line Conditioner with
"premium EMI/RFI noise filtering" that
"prevents equipment interaction [and] system interference".
The question remains open for any further comment.

om3-ga

first off, the electical current going into your house will in no way,
at all, ever, in any way, shape or form,  allow ANY KIND OF ACCESS
WHATSOEVER  to ANYONE ***EVER*** to your computer. If you think
otherwise , or have a "but what about..." kind of response it is
wrong. This is a complete non-issue. It merely provides the power to
run the machine. The AC current going into your conputer gets
converted down into 12, 5, 3.3 and several other varying DC voltages
by the power supply before it gets anywhere near the electroic
circutry.  No data is being trnasferred between your Motherboard and
and your wall outlet. Power transformers and the like prevent spikes,
dips, and massive lightning surges from getting to your favorite
equipment. A Tripp-Lite power regulator (100 bucks) on it's own circut
should protect a whole office setup, and provide the kind of "tinfoil
on your head" protection you are mistakenly looking for. you probably
are using a PC that has been infected with sevaral viruses, and is
probably infected with tons of adware, which will provide people with
that kind of information. There is no such thing as the "local nerds",
as most spyware is done on a national level, and grography is
uninportant. If you Live in LA, for example, you are closer to Tokyo
then to New York, thanks to fiber optic cables ringing the globe. If
you are on a dialup conenction, there is little risk of your machine
being hacked, as no one would give a care about a computer that is not
really "on the internet" as dialup is now too slow to take advantage
of the moden internet, or be used by modern hackers for malicious
things. If you are on a broadband connection (DSL/ Cable), Go get a
linksys wired router and change it's default password. The hard
firewall inside it, coupled with getting rid of viruses, spy & ad ware
(and looking for it in the future on a regular basis), as well as
probably reloading your machine and upgrading it with the myriad of
curent patches , checkers, and all that other "PC owner" nonsense will
probably not only get rid of all of that stuff, but make your machine
run better.   Or you could just go buy a new or used mac and forget
about all the hacker /spyware / adware / virus BS and jsut get on with
things, like allmac users do.  But again. forget ALL YOUR NOTIONS THAT
THE AC VOLTAGE INTERACTS WITH YOUR COMPUTER!

I would like to also confirm that there is absolutely NO WAY anyone
can get ANY ACCESS to ANYTHING in your computer through the computer's
power source.

There is one slight exception:  There is a home-networking product
that uses the electrical system to send ethernet-like data.  If you
have purchased such as system, there is a VERY REMOTE possibility that
adjacent houses (with the exact same system and appropriate hacking
tools) will be able to see your network traffic.  With a firewall
installed, they'd still have NO WAY of viewing your computer's
contents.