Ah, but its worth it Jeremy. In a sea of devices on a shared media network, knowing a MAC address is really valuable. With it, the provider has a greatly enhanced capability to troubleshoot, upgrade firmware, offer differentiated classes of services, build private VLANs, even provide services NOT reliant upon TCP/IP.
Of course, if they don't DO any of this stuff, then registering your MAC address is just an extra headache both the customer and provider could live without. -----Original Message----- From: Jeremy Portzer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 9:59 PM To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Roadrunner Port Blocking issues / tech support hilarity On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, Jeff Groves wrote: > I change my IP address at will by changing my MAC address of my router, turning off the > router and firewall for about a couple of minutes, then powering up the modem then the > router. This works if your router allows you to change your MAC address. Up here in Comcast territory, you have to register your router's (or computer NIC's) MAC address with the company before you will be allowed through the network. (I think you get an IP address from the DHCP server, but your packets are blocked from going anywhere.) So if/when you get a new router, or change its MAC address, you have to call them up and let them know. I guess this is done to discourage nefariousness, but it still seems like a lot of hassle for them, and a lot of call center expenses. So just remember - it can get a lot worse than TWC! Jeremy Portzer New Carrollton (PG County), Maryland -- /---------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Jeremy Portzer [EMAIL PROTECTED] trilug.org/~jeremy | | GPG Fingerprint: 712D 77C7 AB2D 2130 989F E135 6F9F F7BC CC1A 7B92 | \---------------------------------------------------------------------/ -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
