OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Angstrom & OpenZaurus => Topic started by: Anonymous on March 15, 2004, 03:49:48 pm
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how to change Mac address through OZ 3.3.6pre1 console? How (ie show command lines)? thanks
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As far as I know, the Mac address is hard coded into the network adapter, each adapter having a globally unique address.
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Hmmm... That\'s an odd request.
What need would anyone have to change their mac addr?
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no idea on a z, but check out how heartbeat works that will prbly give u a clue
and why would u use it? well it\'ll allow u to bypass mac filtering on wifi access points
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Note: some newer motherboards allow you to assign MAC address manually in bios.
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There\'s other valid reasons also, such as when MAC addresses conflict, despite the fact that they\'re supposed to be globally unique (yes, I\'ve seen a batch with all the same MAC). Also, if you\'re on a wifi access point that you have legit access to, but have changed your card, it\'s sometimes easier to change your MAC than jump through the hoops of re-registering.
Anyway, to do it, you can either use the ifconfig command, or macchanger. Macchanger is available as a Debian ARM package, and does work on the Z. I think I had to manually untar and install it, but I\'m not sure anymore.
Or, even easier, you can use the following.
ifconfig eth0 hw ether DE:AD:BE:EF:00:00 substituting for the appropriate interface, and the desired MAC address, in hexadecimal.
Both ways of changing are software-based, and won\'t persist over a reboot or removal/insertion cycle. In other words, you aren\'t changing the hard-coded MAC, more like \"spoofing\" the MAC.
(For Windows users, there\'s a program called SMAC that will do the same thing.)
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In Linux, the ifconfig command is typically used for changing Mac address, although I don\'t know if the version supplied with OZ supports it. From a write-up on Wellenreiter, I understand that it calls ifconfig for changing the Mac addr (to avoid detection), so I suspect that it works.
For the other two posters above... Yes, the Mac address is normally hardcoded into the NIC, but many cards, especially 802.11 ones, allow it to be changed on-the-fly. There are a couple of reasons that a user might wish to do so: obviously, one is to avoid activity being traced back to the real card, or to gain access to a network that is otherwise Mac address restricted. However, another common and legitimate reason is if a modem, such as a DSL or Cable box, is tied to a particular Mac address. You can temporarily assign the Mac address to another device to allow that device to connect through your existing Cable or DSL modem.
EDIT: I hate it when someone else posts an answer while I\'m busy composing mine :wink: Oh, well... Since I\'ve already started my reply, I\'ll go ahead & post it anyway.