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Date:      Fri, 14 May 1999 18:40:49 -0700
From:      "Justin C. Walker" <justin@apple.com>
To:        Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
Cc:        Steve.Gailey@db.com, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: ifconfig: changing mac address
Message-ID:  <199905150140.SAA00629@walker3.apple.com>
In-Reply-To: <199905141618.RAA03237@pow.srv.uk.deuba.com>

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[Apologies if this is duplicated, sort of; I inadvertently lost  
power as I was sending a reply to this, and I don't have a record  
that it was sent].

> From: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
> Date: 1999-05-14 10:11:52 -0700
> To: Steve.Gailey@db.com
> Subject: Re: ifconfig: changing mac address
> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
> In-reply-to: <199905141618.RAA03237@pow.srv.uk.deuba.com>
> Delivered-to: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
> X-Mailer: VM 6.34 under 19.16 "Lille" XEmacs Lucid
> X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG
>
> > Is it possible to change the mac address of an ethernet card using  
> > ifconfig?
>
> Not in any 'standard' card, no.  Some cards (in SUN workstations) allow 
> you to swap the EEPROM with the mac address, and I'll bet somewhere 
> someone has designed a card with a programmable mac address, but
> normally it's not settable.

I don't believe this is correct.  The cards I'm familiar with only  
accept unicast packets when programmed with a specific MAC address.   
This is normally the one that's in a ROM associated with the device  
somehow, but there's no reason it can't be changed.

DECNet, for example, assumes for some protocols at least, that the  
MAC address is one from the block of addresses owned by DEC.   
CompaqNet?  Sheesh.

Regards,

Justin
--
Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large *
Institute for General Semantics       |
Manager, CoreOS Networking            | When crypto is outlawed,
Apple Computer, Inc.                  | Only outlaws will have crypto.
2 Infinite Loop                       |
Cupertino, CA 95014                   |
*-------------------------------------*-------------------------------*


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