BT Vision Idea..

[ElectricNoodle]

While Im at home for the summer from uni, I noticed my parents got BT Vision, they also downgraded their internet down to a capped usage plan... which doesn't suit me too much So then I thought about the BT Vision Box... it works by streaming all the tv shows on demand.. stuff like I player... movies... that sort of thing, but then I read online that the bandwidth used by the BT Vision, isn't counted against the Usage limit of the broadband, So this surely must mean that the traffic from the box comes with a certain identifier attached? to let BT know not to count its bandwidth? What I was thinking was that, if I could somehow sniff on the BT Vision traffic, and find out how it identifies itself differently compared to the rest of the traffic, I could maybe code up some sort of Spoofer that made my laptop traffic appear as if it were BT Vision traffic? Hence getting round the usage limit
    Im not too experienced with the sniffing side though, I've sniffed and cracked a few WEP's before, but this is a bit different as it runs on an ethernet cable, and through one of those boxes that lets it travel through house wiring... So would I just boot up airmon or WireShark and plug directly into the router to sniff its traffic? Also does this idea sound at all feasible?? Just figured I'd see if anyone had any knowledge before I go trying anything

[Teh-J0k3r]

That's an interesting idea, the identifier which you're talking about might be encrypted though for this very purpose so that might be something you'd have to deal with. 

[FuyuKitsune]

You may not get information from the router, depending on how it's configured but give it a shot anyway. The router will most likely only send packets down the destination line. Those house wiring plugs probably runs like hubs (no filtering/redirection of data) rather than switches so you could sniff there.
If all fails get an ethernet hub and hook it up like a middle-man somewhere between the modem and the box you're sniffing. Right at the box is a good spot, there's no way to mess it up there.

Like Teh-J0k3r said, it might be encrypted and is most likely compressed.

Maybe one of EZ's projects could be reverse engineering this protocol. That would be pretty badass.

[ElectricNoodle]

Cool, Cheers for the input, I don't have an ethernet hub handy just yet, but will sort one out, for now im just gonna load up BT Vision, have it streaming a program, and see what happens on the router side, I sniffed it last night when the BT Vision wasnt on, and no one was using the internet, so it'll be easy to see if theres some activity!!

Edit: Yeah... Sniffing on eth0 with my laptop plugged into the router yields no results
I'd have to buy a hub to do it... Unless, There's a way of me being able to route the traffic through my laptop? maybe by plugging the ethernet from the BT Vision, into my ethernet port? then let it connect to the internet through my wireless connection to the router? That way I could again, sniff on eth0, but this time I would be the man in the middle I'll have a think as to how to do it! If anyone has any ideas it would be helpful

[FuyuKitsune]

Yeah, that would be a bridge. These instructions should work http://askville.amazon.com/laptop-wireless-bridge/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1489124 but you shouldn't need a crossover cable, most network cards have auto-detection for that now.

[Rafy]

This is an interesting project indeed!I really hope you can find out what you are looking for but like the other guys I'm pretty convinced that it's gonna be at least compressed if not encrypted.