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MAC address

Grant Edwards grante at visi.com
Mon Sep 20 23:37:16 EDT 2004 
On 2004-09-21, Ajay <abra9823 at mail.usyd.edu.au> wrote:

>> How are you going to avoid collisions?  I suppose it's a
>> sufficiently slim probability you can just ignore it.
>>
>>> also, is there an alternative way to anonymize a client?
>>
>> Not really, but how could your MAC address be traced to you,
>> anyway?
>
> i suppose i should clarify again that the question is not in
> the context of the Internet but a wireless LAN.

Right.

> within a LAN, if i were to open a socket connection with a
> server and send some data to it, the server would be able to
> pick up my MAC and IP address.

If the server is on the same LAN, yes.  If it's on the other
side of a router or firewall, no. That said, once the server
has your MAC, what's it going to do with it?  Is there some way
to trace that MAC to your name, address, and phone number?

> so what i want to do is to anonymize the MAC by picking a
> random (but valid) MAC address and using that. after that i
> will anonymize the IP.

Strictly speaking, the only MAC that is "valid" according to
the IEEE spec is the one the manufacturer put into it. However,
as long as you pick a MAC address that's not one of the special
ones (broadcast or multicast addresses), you can probably just
pick one at random.


-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  A can of ASPARAGUS,
                                  at               73 pigeons, some LIVE ammo,
                               visi.com            and a FROZEN DAQUIRI!!
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