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Date:      Thu, 20 Apr 2000 19:55:23 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Bob K <melange@yip.org>
To:        "Chad R. Larson" <chad@DCFinc.com>
Cc:        Ronald van der Pol <Ronald.vanderPol@surfnet.nl>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   [OT] Re: setting Ethernet address on Ethernet card?
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004201934450.76732-100000@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <200004202311.QAA08703@freeway.dcfinc.com>

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On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Chad R. Larson wrote:

> As I recall, Ronald van der Pol wrote:
> > Is it possible to change the Ethernet address on an Ethernet card?
> 
> It depends on the card.  Some can (usually more expensive, high end),
> some can't (clones and cheapies).  Those that can are usually so as
> to be able to support Ethernet multicasting, or High Availablity
> failovers and the like.
[snip]
> 
> There might be an MS-DOS utility available from the manufacturer, if
> the card hardware supports it.

Just to give an example of a cheapie clone card that can change its MAC
address, the ISA SN2000PCT's MAC addy can be changed by using the DOS
utility (but you have to add the /f flag).  I *think* it uses the RealTek
8019 chipset, but I can't remember for sure (it's in a win98 box at the
moment).  As an added bonus, the setup utility will change the MAC address
to fe:ff:ff:ff in the event of a MAC address collision.

Now before anyone gets excited about it, I wouldn't recommend those cards
to anybody.  The reason I know of its MAC address changing abilities is
because the setup utility incorrectly determined there was a MAC address
collision (no other cards in the box, not connected to a network, no I/O
or irq conflicts) and changed it.  Also, about a year and a half ago, I
think the EEPROM started to die so that on reboot the card would no longer
be detected; the only thing that would bring it back was powering the
machine off and unplugging it for several seconds, then "re-activate" it
with the RealTek configuration utility.  On the up side, it's completely
fine in jumperless (ie, non-PnP) mode.

-- 
Bob <melange@yip.org>
"Reality is the only word in the language that should always be used
		in quotes" - My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult sample



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