Changing MAC address

[Tera]

At home, I have a router and noticed that through the setup, I can change the MAC address of the router through the software.

I was wondering, on my XP Pro pc that is directly connected through the net, is there a way to do the same thing for my NIC card?

Thank you.

 

[Karl Burrows]

NIC cards have a MAC address that are hard coded into the card and can not be changed. Your router is using a method to trick your DSL provider into thinking your original computer is still hooked up to the Internet connection since many discourage home networking.
At home, I have a router and noticed that through the setup, I can change the MAC address of the router through the software.

I was wondering, on my XP Pro pc that is directly connected through the net, is there a way to do the same thing for my NIC card?

Thank you.

 

[Matt Gibson]

Wrong

On most cards, the MAC address can be EASILY changed.

Go into device manager, and open up the properties of your NIC. Go into the
advanced tab, select "Address", and fill in a new MAC address. Et voila!
You're done.

Matt Gibson - GSEC

 

[Tera]

Thank you, I'm glad to see this option is available.

I just tried it on my wireless laptop, went into advanced but didn't have
the option to change the MAC. It's a bit late right now, but in the
morning, I'll have to try it on my desktop pc and see how it goes.

Once again, thank you for the below steps.

 

[speeder]

At home, I have a router and noticed that through the setup, I can change the MAC address of the router through the software.

I was wondering, on my XP Pro pc that is directly connected through the net, is there a way to do the same thing for my NIC card?

Thank you.

MAC addresses are hard coded to the circuits but this could be done in
EPROM. Meaning: it is possible to flash it provided the software knows
how to do this.

I once tried to find some application that did this and found 2 (don´t
have the links any longer, sorry). As I experimented with both,
Windows would complain a lot and sometimes hang or BSOD as if it did
not understand how a MAC address changed (it shouldn´t in principal).
I got it to work but it was *very* tricky business.

Routers don´t really change their MAC but fool the modem to thinking
it did. And I believe you can only change the WAN MAC not the LAN MAC.

 

[Richard Urban]

You had better change "most" to SOME.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Matt Gibson]

I've yet to see one that can't, so I'm sticking with most ;-)

Matt Gibson - GSEC

 

[Ron Martell]

Wrong

On most cards, the MAC address can be EASILY changed.

Go into device manager, and open up the properties of your NIC. Go into the
advanced tab, select "Address", and fill in a new MAC address. Et voila!
You're done.

Matt Gibson - GSEC

Be *very careful* about changing the MAC address for the network card
in any computer running Windows XP or Server 2003.

The MAC address is one of the hardware components monitored by Product
Activation and a change in it could trigger the need to reactivate
Windows. In fact the MAC address is considered 3 times as important
as any other hardware item in terms of activation.

For details see the article on Windows XP Activation by the late Alex
Nichol MVP at http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm