MAC address help

[Brumie Allan]

Can a piece of equipment change it's MAC code or is it fixed? I know it's possible to change it but can it change it's self.

I'm having problems with a Vodafone sure signal box. After having loads of problems setting it up and trawling through pages of people having the same problem, I was told be Vodafone to send it back it not compatible with my set up.

But not being one to give up I tried some of the tips on the threads. I opened up ports 50, 500 & 4500 on the Sure signals IP address and it started working.

The problem is it is not a static IP address so as different phones, iPods & laptops log on and off and resetting the router, which we have to do regularly, it's IP address changes which is a pain.

I have set up 6 computers, 3 iPhones and 2 iPods with static IP addresses so there is only one phone the Sure signal and the Wii that are random. At the moment I have 3 unknown MAC address registered on my router which I think are all the Sure signal which can't be right. If you've bothered to read to the end of the post without falling asleep can you help please.

[se1eagle]

Normally a MAC address is fixed to a network adaptor - to change the MAC one normally has to change the hardware.

I don't know much about Sure Signal but I would expect the Sure Signal box to only have one MAC address - can you tell in the router config if these 3 unknown MAC addresses are connected wired or wirelessly? What happens if you block them?

Regarding your lack of static IP, DynDNS do a good solution with an auto-updater to automatically update a DNS entry to your new IP address whenever your router changes it:-

http://www.dyndns.com/about/home_solutions.html

[Brumie Allan]

I've just blocked the two MAC I'm not sure of, just waiting for someone to shout something not working.

I'll have a look it that other dns link thanks

[Ridcully]

You usually have a MAC address for each adapter type, so in theory the wired and wireless parts of your setup could have different MAC address. They should be unique addresses but you can change MAC addresses on different bits on hardware but its unlikely that the device would do this itself.

[Brumie Allan]

Originally Posted by Ridcully

You usually have a MAC address for each adapter type, so in theory the wired and wireless parts of your setup could have different MAC address. They should be unique addresses but you can change MAC addresses on different bits on hardware but its unlikely that the device would do this itself.

that's what I thought but this box seems to have signed on to my network with three different MAC codes, strange.

[Pistol Knight]

you can get a static ip on any router by assinging it

http://portforward.com/

a great site for setting up routers/wireless connection etc

[Brumie Allan]

A bit of an update. Everything in the house has it's own static address except for the Sure signal. I just went on a call and the Sure signal lost connection and has now signed on to the network with a different MAC address this should not be possible but it is

[Brett]

If the plastic from Vodafone works like a router then it is entirely possible that it has 3 x MAC addresses. If the MAC addresses are identical apart from the last 2 digits, they almost certainly belong to the same device.

If they are completely different from each, they could still belong to the same device but you would need to interrogate the settings on that device in order to confirm.

You might gain some traction from locating the ip address of these devices and connecting to them. I would imagine the Vodafone device has a web GUI you can connect to simply by typing it's ip address into a web browser.