adapter identification

Is there any way to change the adapter identification (00-A0-B1-C2-D3-E5)? Either on the card itself or through software. Do programs access this information from the card itself or does windows keep this info in a registry entry?

1. RE: adapter identification
lbyard Aug-29-00 04:10 PM
In response to message 0

LAST EDITED ON Aug-29-00 AT 04:11 PM (GMT)
That is the Media Access Controller (MAC) address of the Ethernet card. It is “burned/hardwired” into the card itself and is a permanent part of the card. Each and every Ethernet card in the world has a unique MAC address.
Now let me guess… You have a cable MODEM which has married itself to a specific Ethernet card—will only “talk” an Ethernet card with that MAC address? I have found one way so far to work around this mechanism. The SMC Barricade Broadband router (http://www.smc.com/smc/pages_html/homef.html) has the ability to clone a MAC address. That is, it sites between the MODEM and the married Ethernet card and a user can instruct it to clone the Ethernet card’s MAC address. Once cloned that is the MAC address that the Barricade present to the cable MODEM. The MODEM is actually “looking” at the Barricade, but is deceived by the barricade into “thinking” it is looking at its spousal Ethernet card. Larry

2. RE: adapter identification
atv Aug-30-00 01:13 AM
In response to message 1

Thanks for the reply. I realise that this value is coded on the card. The next question is whether this is etched into the IC or whether it is programmed later ( like PROM ). Next, what is the boot ROM socket for? Can this be used to create a new ID? The reason I ask is that I have software that is licensed to the NIC. Unfortunately the programmer that created this software is deceased. My concern right now is if the NIC ceases to function. Unfortuanately I am finding that more and more software is being protected this way. I wish they would return to using dongles. At least with a dongle you can upgrade the hardware. Although I do have one PC with 5 dongles on it.

3. RE: adapter identification
lbyard Aug-30-00 04:42 AM
In response to message 2

A boot ROM essentially replaces the boot track on a disk drive, etc. so a diskless PC can load an operating system off a file server. I would guess the MAC address is in flash memory, but that is only a guess. Larry