[snakeyjake]

>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.

[alex_duf]

I'm afraid this is factually wrong, my computer had a public IP until the early 2010s as around these days modems were just models and not routers too.

And with IPv6 all my devices could be publicly addressed but I've enabled a firewall to block incoming traffic at the router level.

[Suppafly]

>my computer had a public IP until the early 2010s as around these days modems were just models and not routers too.

You realize that wasn't the norm though right?

[globular-toast]

It was. Our 56k modem was a PCI card. Later we had ISDN and ADSL modems (I still use the latter to this day). I only got a router (a Linksys device) to attach multiple computers to the internet. It was a few years before ISPs started bundling routers and WiFi APs.

[thebruce87m]

I hadn’t made that connection about 56k and public IPs until now. I just used it at the time before I had any of the knowledge I did now. Interesting!

[globular-toast]

I didn't think about it before I got the router. I found it a bit annoying because I had to think about things like port forwarding. Previously everything just worked without any configuration (like P2P file sharing or running a game server). I'm not sure I really understood it even then, though. Just followed instructions parrot fashion.

[thebruce87m]

Yep, same for me. I was just a teenager wanting to play games and then suddenly I had to know about port forwarding.

[zinekeller]

Even discounting dial-up, this really depends on where you are in the world at the time. PPPoE and direct hookup (via the cable/ADSL modem) are still relatively common where I was at the time that Blaster was roaming around, while some countries have forced CGNAT even before CGNAT became a common word, usually for "protecting the children" like Cleanfeed (and even discounting that, event at the time you could still get IPv4 effortlessly there had been, and certainty there are still, crappy ISPs which don't really care about direct connections).

[jmgao]

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

[InfamousRece]

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.

[ctippett]

I live in an apartment block where each flat is likely spending £30-60 per month on broadband. Even accounting for the odd power user, I reckon we could get away with sharing a 1-2 Gbps connection and benefit from the collective cost savings. Legal accountability aside, I kinda like the idea of a neighbourhood network commune.

[kccqzy]

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.