Intel PRO/100: How to permanently change the MAC address in EEPROM

[ToeJam13]

All,

I have an Intel PRO/100 (82559) NIC that I am trying to modify. I need to change the fixed MAC address of the port.

The Intel ProBoot utility will allow me to save the firmware portion of the EEPROM, but not the settings area where the MAC address is stored.

Is there a utility on the Net that will allow me to change this option?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ScottMac]

No. The MAC is in ROM and is not (permenantly) changable.

FWIW

Scott

 

[ToeJam13]

Whoo hoo!

I found a utility by Intel called "EEUPDATE.EXE" that allows you to change the MAC address in the EEPROM. The syntax is as follows:

EEUPDATE -nic=x -mac=y

Where:
x = your Intel NIC ID (usually 1)
y = your MAC address in HEX (no spaces or colons)

My NIC is a PRO/100+ Management PCI card. Various technical briefs I have read state that this program may or may not work with embedded chips.

 

[eigen]

why do you want to do this.....I can only think of naughty little things to use this for.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: eigen
why do you want to do this.....I can only think of naughty little things to use this for.

seconded.

make sure you set your mac to...

01-00-5e-00-00-01 (or for fun just vary the least signficant byte from 01 - 10

or

ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff

or

00-00-00-00-00-00

oooh, now I'm just being mean.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: eigen
why do you want to do this.....I can only think of naughty little things to use this for.

seconded.

make sure you set your mac to...

01-00-5e-00-00-01 (or for fun just vary the least signficant byte from 01 - 10

or

ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff

or

00-00-00-00-00-00

oooh, now I'm just being mean.

00-00-5E

 

[ToeJam13]

Originally posted by: eigen
why do you want to do this.....I can only think of naughty little things to use this for.

We have a network where we use static ARP tables rather ARP broadcasts for MAC-to-IP resolution. One of our NICs went bad and I don't feel like waiting two weeks for security peer review to approve us changing 50 core servers' static ARP startup scripts.

True, I could set the MAC address of an interface at the OS level, but I don't care to have to remember to update the scripts each time we upgrade our OS distribution.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: ToeJam13

Originally posted by: eigen
why do you want to do this.....I can only think of naughty little things to use this for.

We have a network where we use static ARP tables rather ARP broadcasts for MAC-to-IP resolution. One of our NICs went bad and I don't feel like waiting two weeks for security peer review to approve us changing 50 core servers' static ARP startup scripts.

True, I could set the MAC address of an interface at the OS level, but I don't care to have to remember to update the scripts each time we upgrade our OS distribution.

Sounds good.

But in the mean time...why on god's green earth why. I mean I've done government work and they don't go that far.