changing mac addresses automatically

[skisteven1]

I'm in a situation where I'd like to change the mac address of my computer on a pretty regular basis. Right now, I have it behind a router, and I'm using the web interface of the router to change the external MAC, and doing it by hand. I tried figuring out a way to automate that (no luck yet), which seems like the easiest way to do it.

I'm not opposed to putting the computer outside of the router, but I still wouldn't know how to change the MAC automatically. I can do it through the device manager (WinXP pro), properties of the NIC, but still, no good way to automate that. I've played with a macro scheduling program a little... but seems like a real pain in the @ss. I'm also not opposed to using a third party program (like amac, or smac, though i'm really looking at free to super-cheap right now, which smac is not), but I don't know of any that do what I want.

Other thoughts: linux could do this pretty easily with a cronjob. However, i odn't have a spare box to set up with linux to act as a router. Also, considering getting one of those routers that you can put linux on, and allowing it to run the cronjob and switch the macs. That seems easiest at the moment. Can you suggest any routers? (just that one linksys one?).

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Sunner]

This begs the question why you'd wanna do something like this?

 

[Fardringle]

The only reason you would need to regularly change the MAC address of your router or your computer is if you are trying to repeatedly get new IP addresses from your ISP. The only reason I can think of that you would want to do this is to avoid having people and web sites tracking you doing stuff that you should not be doing.

I'll be happy to have you prove me wrong, and if you do actually have a legitimate reason please let us know what it is and there are plenty of people here that would be willing to help you out. If you are trying to do something illegal (or even just dishonest) don't bother asking here as we won't condone that type of action.

 

[Zap]

I know people who are Falun Dafa practitioners and many of them run proxy servers off their home broadband connections to allow people in China to surf the web uncensored (presumably to reach news sites, but ya know there's gotta be some Chinese dudes who just want to see nekkid blonde chixors with big hooters). The theory goes that the Chinese government eventually discovers these proxy servers and blocks access to those IP addresses, thus necessitating a change of IP address. Originally IP addresses were entered manually and they couldn't figure out why sometimes internet access just stops working alltogether - they thought that China somehow disabled their internet. Duh! They probably set it to something that someone else was getting assigned through DHCP. Anyways, I think they may do the MAC address change these days. They have some software that runs on a client computer that changes the settings occasionally, plus a hookup to an X10 module through a serial port to power cycle the modem.

 

[skisteven1]

Before everyone worries about me doing something illegally (or immoral), and yes, I probably should have addressed this to begin with... here's the reason

I'm on a university campus, and we're restricted to 500MB transfer per day. I think that's awfully low (especially as someone who RDP's into my desktop to listen to music while at work), and I've discovered that by changing my MAC address, I get a new 500mb (no, it's not done by port like you might expect). So while it might be a little immoral, "I'm not hurting anyone" O

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my 15KBs isn't hurting the network throughput, which is the point of the restrictions in the first place. Does that calm anyone's fears?

Thanks!

 

[Fardringle]

I'm glad to hear you're not trying to do anything illegal. However even if you're "not hurting anyone" you are violating the school's network usage policy and that can get your net privileges taken away (or even kicked out of school if you really annoy someone).

Maybe YOUR 15KB/s isn't hurting anything, but what about the 50,000 other students and THEIR 15KB/s? It adds up VERY quickly and can easily overrun the school's network so people don't have access to legitimate school resources for homework and research. If you actually need more bandwidth you'd be surprised how much a simple request to the network admin can do, but it's not gonna happen for streaming music...

 

[imported_michealo]

talk to your network admin
circumventing thier policies is not a solution

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: skisteven1
Before everyone worries about me doing something illegally (or immoral), and yes, I probably should have addressed this to begin with... here's the reason

LOL.

Your reason is Moral and Legal? :shocked:

:sun:

 

[skisteven1]

OK, so relatively moral and legal.

While I don't want to get into a whole long philosophical debate, here's one example of where rules set in place by the netadmin aren't necessarily meant for everyone. Officially, I have to check a box saying i've installed firewall and antivirus (and SP2) on my box in order to get internet. Say I've got linux, or a mac, I still have to check the box saying I've got SP2 in order to get internet. Not only that, but I don't have a virus scan or firewall installed on my desktop. At the moment, it's behind a NAT, and I've only found viruscanners to take up unecessary resources. That said, I'd make sure everyone else has one... I just know that I don't need one. Occasionally I'll check and see (using online scan) if I've picked anything up, but I never do. And keep in mind this is in a university network (which is just teeming with EVERYTHING). Call it bad practice if you want, but I've never had a problem, and if I do have a problem, I'll fix it. I know enough about my computer and how it works to be able to tell if it's got something without having a persistant scanner (like the one they "force" on me).

Same goes for the network BW policy. It's goal is to prevent people who have never had access to broadband before from going nuts and using gigs and gigs a day on bittorrent. I'm not doing that. I'm aware enough of the network resources and speeds to be concious of what I do, and I know that my streaming isn't going to slow anyone else down. Not to mention that's not the only thing I use it for... and sometimes knock myself over the 500mb (both ways) limit per day doing totally legit things (file transfer for work, dl'ing things like SP2, 3dmark, whatever). It's an asinine limit IMHO, and if I have the ability to get around it, I'm going to.

Is that perfectly moral? probably not. Does it bother me? not really. Am I hurting anyone else's bandwidth or internet because of it? not a chance.

So, if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. If you have some ideas but oppose the reason behind my wanting them, please let me know that. But I don't want to get into a debate about the rightness or wrongness of it, cause you're not going to change my opinion. (and I really hope i don't piss anyone off with that)

 

[spidey07]

Must....resist.....urge to post....

 

[Fardringle]

I probably should resist the urge to post as well, but I would be doing you a serious disservice by not speaking up.

When you agree to the campus network usage policy, you are agreeing to abide by every portion of the agreement. (The SP2 portion doesn't apply to you if you have a Mac but it needs to be there for the majority of students that are using Windows XP.) When you agree to that policy, you are signing a contract with the school that you will not violate any portion of the policy.

You certainly have the right to decide whether or not you agree to the policies, but once you agree to the contract, you don?t have the right to decide whether or not you will abide by the terms of the policies.

Using a NAT router is a decent starting point for a firewall so you are probably in compliance with the letter of the policy regarding firewalls there even though you really don?t get much protection from it.

500MB per day is not even remotely close to an ?asinine? limit. It is far more than enough for anyone doing legitimate school work on the network except for rare cases such as large research project, thesis papers, etc., and anyone doing those will have written permission from the administration to obtain an increased bandwidth limit. If you really need more than 500MB per day, either put up the cash to get your own connection (cable or DSL is often available in campus dorms) or get permission from the administrators to increase your bandwidth limit. If you exceed that limit one day due to multiple especially large downloads such as SP2 (which you won?t ever download since you have a Mac, right? ), then you?ve used up your limit for that day and you either need to go to the library, or just wait until the next day to continue using the network. (Another way to put this is: If you?ve used up your allowance for the month, you either need to go get a job, or you need to simply not spend any money until your next allowance is available.) Large bursts of network usage like single downloads don?t really have a significant impact on the performance of the network, but streaming media is always using a portion of the network (high overhead usually means that you?re using a lot more than the 15Kb/s that your system is reporting)

As far as your statement about not needing anti-virus software, the word asinine truly is appropriate. First off, any decent anti-virus software takes virtually zero system resources and will not ever be noticeable under any circumstances. (A few games don?t play nice when anti-virus is running in the background, but you can always disable the AV temporarily if needed.) I can?t think of to show how silly your statement is except to take the statement and reword it to be something equally as silly:

At the moment, I?m an indestructible college student, and I've only found condoms to take up unnecessary resources when I?m ?logging in? with a girl. That said, I'd make sure everyone else has one... I just know that I don't need one. Occasionally I'll check and see (using a quick visual scan) if I've picked anything up, but I never do. And keep in mind this is in a university dorm (where the girls are just teeming with EVERYTHING). Call it bad practice if you want, but I've never had a problem, and if I do have a problem, I'll fix it. I know enough about my crotch and how it works to be able to tell if it's got something without having proper protection and regular medical check-ups (like the ones they "force" on me when I visit prostitutes).

The fact is that anti-virus software is not just to protect your computer against viruses. It is also to protect everyone else on the campus network from any viruses that you might pick up and not even know it. You may very well know how to fix viruses on your computer if you should happen to find one, but the network admins have to deal with the thousands of other computers that could be affected by the virus on your machine before you even notice that you?ve been infected due to your ?occasional? online scans.