[Scottish] What's up MAC?

[scottish@mailman.lug.org.uk]

> Anybody know which NICs have programmable MAC addresses? Preferably 
> configurable  under Windows as well as Linux. Extra browny points will 
> be awarded for cheapness ;)

Due to the silliness of DECNet almost any Ethernet card will allow the MAC address to be changed. In the vast majority of cases this is because the full Ethernet frame, MAC and all is made by the OS and sent out over the wire. The card just tells the OS what the MAC address that it should use is.

For Linux you will be fine since the drivers allow you to change the MAC address but Windows may be tricky since all the Windows built-in drivers I have used for NE2000 clones didn't let me. Probably the better cards, i.e. non-clones that come with specialized drivers will have that facility.

Hope this helps,
Steven Murdoch.