Computer Question: MAC Address

[Plecostomus]

I was using our wireless network at work today with my laptop. The network connection went down on my end around 2pm. After a frustrating half hour the IT guy decided that Time Warner had blocked my "MAC Address" on their end and while he "could" release it from his end he needed to know exactly why they would block my "Mac Address" and he wasn't going to do so unless I submitted to a full hard-drive search to look for "illegal material."

He went home I played around with some settings and ZOMG here I am again. I know what I did, and it has nothing to do with the "MAC address."

Smells like digestive system leavings to me. Can Time Warner actually block an individual "MAC Address?" The rest of what he said was pure bullshit, but now I'm curious about the first part.

 

[Lindley]

They certainly can; I'm not sure why they would. The MAC address is used to differentiate machines on a LAN, but rarely beyond that because they aren't guaranteed to be unique. In fact some OSes let you just change the things at will.

 

[Garrovick]

TWC Cares about 2 Mac Addresses

1. The Cable Modem
2. The Device Directly attahced to the Cable Modem

Anything after 2 is your issue.

 

[JonathonWally]

They certainly can; I'm not sure why they would. The MAC address is used to differentiate machines on a LAN, but rarely beyond that because they aren't guaranteed to be unique. In fact some OSes let you just change the things at will.

Indeed, gone are the days when you had to trash your Orinoco network card after you'd done something "questionable"

 

[Plecostomus]

TWC Cares about 2 Mac Addresses

1. The Cable Modem
2. The Device Directly attahced to the Cable Modem

Anything after 2 is your issue.

So, my laptop connects via magic waves to a blinking light box that is attached to a bigger blinking light box that connects to the humming-thing in the IT Room... which I assume connects to Time Warner. (is that too technical? )

Time Warner would never see my MAC address then would they?

 

[Luckyflux]

They certainly can; I'm not sure why they would. The MAC address is used to differentiate machines on a LAN, but rarely beyond that because they aren't guaranteed to be unique. In fact some OSes let you just change the things at will.

Change the MAC address? You sure about that? I thought MAC addys are unique, which is why they are used to filter like that. The first three sets of digits is the manufacturers ID, so all Dell NIC's would have the same first six characters, while the last three sets of numbers is the unique ID per card.

TWC might have changed their wireless scheme to only allow certain MAC addys to connect, but that isn't something they would change on the fly. I would think that there would be some kind of warning if they were going to switch security plans.

 

[Lindley]

I don't have firsthand experience, but I'm told Linux has no problem letting you assign a different MAC address to your hardware.

 

[26138]

You can easily google for "MAC address changer" and get programs that let you change the MAC address of your network card.

 

[archeryguy1701]

Is Time Warner a website you were visiting or is it the group in charge of your internet? If I recall my Cisco stuff correctly, the destination and source MAC addresses change from router-to-router (the source is the last peice of hardware the packet was at, the the destination becomes the next piece of hardware that the packet gets forwarded to). So, if they're saying that is was a group somewhere on the internet that blocked your MAC, then I would say it's bogus. But if Time Warner is the group that owns/ manages the internet at that location, then they can do MAC filtering.

 

[FrontLine]

They certainly can; I'm not sure why they would. The MAC address is used to differentiate machines on a LAN, but rarely beyond that because they aren't guaranteed to be unique. In fact some OSes let you just change the things at will.

MAC addresses are supposed to be unique as already explained. In fact you cannot change the MAC address which is burned into the Network Interface Card (NIC), but what you can do is mask it with another by assigning a virtual MAC address to a NIC. It used to be that you would ue a virtual MAC address of when you were hooking up a mainframe to a LAN for connection over the net. Now a days folks do it (typically) when their cable modem provider will restricts the number of PCs that can be on a LAN or if their cable modem first binds to a computer and then the user puts a wireless router behind it to use multiple computers on that connection.

Is Time Warner a website you were visiting or is it the group in charge of your internet? If I recall my Cisco stuff correctly, the destination and source MAC addresses change from router-to-router (the source is the last peice of hardware the packet was at, the the destination becomes the next piece of hardware that the packet gets forwarded to). So, if they're saying that is was a group somewhere on the internet that blocked your MAC, then I would say it's bogus. But if Time Warner is the group that owns/ manages the internet at that location, then they can do MAC filtering.

Close enough. IIRC When you do an inverse ARP you'll see the MAC address listed of the last hop in the path.

As for the explanation the OP I got Im smelling something rotten as to the techs explanation. That sounds more like he didnt know what he was doing and wanted to A) screw with you B) take it back to the shop so someone who knew what they were doing could fix the problem.

 

[TheBrew]

TWC Cares about 2 Mac Addresses

1. The Cable Modem
2. The Device Directly attahced to the Cable Modem

Anything after 2 is your issue.

So, my laptop connects via magic waves to a blinking light box that is attached to a bigger blinking light box that connects to the humming-thing in the IT Room... which I assume connects to Time Warner. (is that too technical? )

Time Warner would never see my MAC address then would they?

Woah, woah, slow down there buddy. In English please.

 

[Ghel]

I don't have a MAC address because I have a PC . . . HA!

. . .oh shutup, someone had to say it

 

[Hermiod]

^Given that "Mac" is not an acronym, no they didn't.

 

[TheBrew]

My Apple Computer?