I'll be sharing my DSL line with some other people in a few days (to be exact, I'll be connecting to an existing line). This is a DSL flatrate.

I was wondering if this might impose a security or privacy risk, i.e., whether my colleages would be able to find out which URLs I visit, how much and which type of traffic I produce, etc.

Any ideas? Thanks

do you have a DSL line at your house?
If so, then you can SSH forward all your stuff to your home computer and have the same security you do at home.
Do a quick search for how to forward HTTP,SMTP,IMAP and so forth and you will have plenty to chew on.
That is my

Well, there are more than just security/privacy risk, there is liability risk also.
It's depend on how much you trust those people. It's no difference than sharing a broadband line w/in your family, but you probably trust your family than other people. You could have software firewall to protect yourself from other coming in, but all data that transfer unencrypted are open to the other if they decide to look. Other than the security risk, there are liability risk also. What I meant by that is what they do online illegally, it will be shown up as your IP and your account. RIAA/MPAA don't care whether who actually is the person download it, as long as the IP address is your, you are responsible for everything other people do with your DSL line.

Samoth,
unfortunately, I haven't understood at all what you wrote. (We'll be sharing an appartment with a DSL line. How would I use SSH to improve anything - or to better understand - or to secure my privacy? Roughly, I know what HTTP, SMTP and IMAP is, and have programmed with it.) Thanks though!

Freeman-Jo,
thanks for your remarks on liability.

- Currently, I'm not so sure about how this DSL connection is actually maintained. Theoretically, there would be some computer that had established the DSL connection at first. I mean, currently, I'm using pppoeconf to "dial-in" at boot-time. I'll try to ask my colleage (who maintains that DSL connection) about that tomorrow.

Thanks again - this issue is not clear for me now as there must be better ways. I.e., Germany's DSL provider t-online has a system of providing user numbers, additionally to the phone line ID (i.e., the user ID would be "phone number + some other ID + user counter") (sorry for my bad English).
Also, I'd be interested in knowing which tools are available for monitoring network traffic.

SSH forwarding is when you encapsulate the data going over HTTP in a encrypted tunnel. therefore any stuff you do will be under your own DSL line. Or are you having the people over at your house?

Thanks. I've googled for
and it looks promising. Nevertheless, I'm not sure how to use it - as normally, I just open my DSL connection and then, point the web browser to some URL (or open a VPN connection to my computer at work, an FTP connection, etc.).

So, I do not understand how to apply this "port forwarding" or "tunneling" globally, to all applications that would connect through the internet? (Sorry if I'm ignorant, I'd just wish to apply some solution, and don't understand everything.)
I'm not sure what you mean. - Apparently, there's only one DSL connection, and there's some device where we plug our network cables in.

Thanks

Off-topic:
So, is there an eternal (and better) life for everyone? Or for the ones who love Jesus back, only? Or for the ones only, that comply to His rules? - I've seen in your profile that you're just 14 yo - amazing in this aspect. - Regarding this, you're most welcome to send me a private message (if you'd like).

Just for the record: I'm using JAP, resp., anon-proxy now. Tor would be another alternative.

Basically, a local proxy gets installed that's used by Firefox etc., and sends encrypted requests to other, public proxies - which, in turn, return the encrypted contents.

I believe in the KISS principal - Keep It Simple Stupid (me). The real risk you have in sharing a DSL line is NOT other people seeing what you are doing (read on) but in what is actually transferred on your connection. The owner of the DSL line is responsible for everything transferred using the connection. So if the other users illegally download music/video or kitty porn -- the DSL owner is responsible.

Now, just to keep life simple, go buy a DSL/Cable router. These are available from Netgear, Linksys, Dlink, Belkin to name a few. All of these routers have integrated switches. You connect the router to your DSL modem and connect each computer using the DSL line to a separate switch port on the router.
This is a switch so your traffic is not visible to other users. However your computer is. So keep file sharing off and enable your firewall (assuming Windows, yug!).

The router will cost between $25 and $100 (US) and can be gotten used on EBay. This is safe, secure and simple. Unless you are really network savvy and know how to set up router rules or proxies you will spend from now till next year fooling around with an unnecessarily complicated solution.