Originally Posted by tianonymous

...and its usually some ISP router/switch which is the last hop.

Thanks again. Dumbed down I'm reading this as "Yes, occasionally websites will be able to identify my ISP Experia Box and I would have to replace it to be secure".

Originally Posted by tmybpv

Thanks again. Dumbed down I'm reading this as "Yes, (occasionally) websites will be able to uniquely identify my ISP Experia Box".

Ok, maybe let me put it this way. When you visit a website, you send a request to see the website and the website responds with the webpage. Now the request goes something like this.. From your computer -> your router -> your ISP router -> ... -> website server ISP router -> website router -> website computer -> website.

If you are using a router to connect to your ISP, your computer will probably have a local IP, but your router will have a public IP. This public IP will be sent all the way to the website, and will be used to get the response webpage from the website back to you. So the website will always know your public IP.

Now each hop in the chain above will have a different MAC. Maybe, now the last hop MAC makes sense.

Originally Posted by tianonymous

Ok, maybe let me put it this way. When you visit a website, you send a request to see the website and the website responds with the webpage. Now the request goes something like this.. From your computer -> your router -> your ISP router -> ... -> website server ISP router -> website router -> website computer -> website.

If you are using a router to connect to your ISP, your computer will probably have a local IP, but your router will have a public IP. This public IP will be sent all the way to the website, and will be used to get the response webpage from the website back to you. So the website will always know your public IP.

Now each hop in the chain above will have a different MAC. Maybe, now the last hop MAC makes sense.

So sorry about all of this (:
And thanks! I understand now it's somewhat impossible for my ISP Experia Box to be the latest "hop" and I should be secure.