First Post & Question on MAC Address Programming

B

Belicoso_Fino

New Member
Hi,

My name is Larry, I'm from North Texas, and for the past umpteen years I've been building custom boxes for my various projects, family, and friends. I'm fluent in Linux, SunOS, Solaris, and I have a grudging familiarity with Windows Server & other products from the evil empire.

My question is...

I've never run up against this problem, but I'd like to re-program the MAC address on an imbedded NIC on an ECS motherboard...OR...purchase a garden variety PCI 10/100/1000 NIC that will allow me to program a MAC address of my choosing.

Why?

I run a small vBulletin web site from under my desk for cigar enthuistasts, and instead of asking Comcast for a static IP, I just grab a address from DHCP. The DHCP address is tied to the MAC address, so changing out the server with a new NIC (like I'm planning to do) will change the IP, and keep my site down for 24 hours or so while DNS updates. Now, that may not seem too bad, but I have 650+ users who visit the site regularly. For me, it's worth the expense of a card and/or software to not drop 650+ people for 24 hours while DNS updates.

Is there a solution out that that I can use?

Thanks!

Larry
 
I've never had to do this myself, but i'm aware of how it can be done. I know the SMC tiger card allows this quite easily with a change to one of the sys files before installing the driver. http://www.ciao.co.uk/SMC_TigerCard_1000__5452217

Also note that it may just be easier to host you site from a unix box which allow mac manipulation via the /sbin/ifconfig eth0 command.

But as a final 2 points, if your hosting from a server behind a router/modem then its the router/modem mac address we should be worried about.
And finally... hosting a site from a non static addy is always more likely to lead to downtime.

PS. What dns server are you using, why cant you just force update it?
 
sorry larry can not be done in north texas, you will have to move to south texas.... :eek:

he he he, :) I do not think it can be done, for one , the mac addres of a nic is hardwired into the card and can not be changed. They are supposed to be unique for each card or device. Second the make up of the mac address , part is a manufacturer number identifying who made the card. I have never heard of changing the mac address. i clicked on the link that the other poster posted for the tiger nic and it mentions nothing about being able to change the mac address. Are you sure you are not confussing the mac address with the ip address ?
you have totally lost me with the last paragraph that you have, i think you need to get a static ip
 
There is another options I use for something similar..

You have an ip address which i constantly changing do you sign up (free) with www.no-ip.org and download their littler ip address updater. You make that a redirecter through their website (also free). This will give you a url of words instead of ip addresses... and it wont change.

The program basically can be setup to update to the website every 10 min if you like.. :) Good luck.
 
Yes actually it does (I have one).

If your running an http server then you will need to forward port 80 to that machine.. If it is a secure http request(HTTPS) then it will be port 443.

You see the dynamic ip thing through noip.org gives you a url that looks like this. http://no-ip.myserver.com

This is intern linked through them to your IP address which is updated with the little program...

so http://no-ip.myserver.com is equal to http://youripaddress

which sends a port 80 or 443 request to your router. Your router forwards this port through port forwarding to your local machine running the forum/blog..
 
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