[LARTC] clone MAC address

[Chris Bennett]

Cloning a MAC address really has nothing to do with particular act of hiding 
multiple computers behind a firewall.

Sometimes an ISP will register the MAC address of a particular device to 
make sure you don't use any other device.  Cloning the MAC address is a way 
of getting around this so you can use some other device (such as replacing a 
single computer with a NAT router/firewall).  If your ISP has registered the 
MAC of the single computer that you currently use, then yes, you will need 
to clone that MAC to your linux box (offhand I don't know how that is done 
either).  But this is just a matter of switching one device for another... 
not with adding multiple computers.

Assuming you can first get the linux box to work with your ISP as your 
"single device", then NAT is what hides your computers that you route though 
the linux box.  The IP of the linux box (and the MAC of the linux box) is 
the only thing that the outside world will see, if NAT is configured 
properly.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicolas Patik" <nicolas.patik@gmail.com>
To: <lartc@mailman.ds9a.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: [LARTC] clone MAC address


> No, I'm not talking about natting ... I'm talking about hidding my
> computers from my ISP.
>
> .. or .... are you telling me that the problem with my linux box is
> about bad firewall rules?
>
> Right now with my linux box doing NAT they can find that I have others
> computers connected. Instead with the minirouter doing "clone MAC
> address" (I don't know what else this minirouter is doing) ... they
> can't.
>
> Could my ISP be running any tool that can detect more than one
> computer? I guess something ARP related?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nicolas
>
> On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 19:15:59 +0100, Stef Coene <stef.coene@docum.org> 
> wrote:
>> On Tuesday 16 November 2004 03:00, Nicolas Patik wrote:
>>
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I have a mini router that have this feature, "clone MAC address"
>> >
>> > My ISP doesn't allow me to connect more than one computer.
>> > But, with the "clone MAC address" of the mini router, I can connect up
>> > to 5 computers, and my ISP can't notice that.
>> >
>> > What do I need to do this "clonning" with my linux box?
>> >
>> It's called natting.  Google is your friend.
>>
>> Stef
>>
>> --
>> stef.coene@docum.org
>>  "Using Linux as bandwidth manager"
>>      http://www.docum.org/
>>
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