[oclug] ethernet MAC Address

[Doug Wilger]

On Sunday 11 February 2001 08:40, you wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 11, 2001 at 07:11:01AM -0500, bbarnett at l8r.net wrote:
> > Yup.. I used to use it in Vancouver with the really old modems.. if I
> > took my one firewall box offline, I'd use the same mac address on the
> > other box's ethernet card to keep the same ip.
> >
> > Worked like a charm.
>
>     I don't think it works with all NICs, just the newer ones. Older ones
> had fixed MAC addresses, while the newer ones are configurable in firmware,
> I think. How a network admin is supposed to ensure they're all unique, I
> have no idea. It's supposed to be up to the manufacturer, so you'd better
> write down what your original MAC address was before you change it.
>
>     Mike

Trivia of the day - any DEC network card, or card compatible with DECNet, 
will allow you to change the MAC address.  It's part of the DECNet protocol - 
 DECNet changed the MAC address so that the DECNet address could be derived 
from the MAC.

Doug