[Tfug] HP/nForce MAC address set incorrectly

[Rich Smit]

I thought I'd share this with you, even though it's hardware related. It 
might explain other network weirdnesses elsewhere and I haven't seen it 
mentioned anywhere on the web.

Here at work, we bought a pair of HP Pavilion a1410e machines. They 
arrived about a month before I started here, so I'm guessing when I say 
they were bought from the Broadway branch of Circuit City.

Unlike the other nForce-based HPs we've bought recently, these 1410s 
didn't have the nForce drivers installed, but were just using the M$ 
compatibility drivers. This caused bottlenecks between graphics, disk 
and network.

However, both these machines also had non-unique MAC addresses. 
00:04:0b:80:80:80 to be precise. Google that and you'll get exactly one 
hit. Guess what? It's another nForce-based machine. Looks like a default 
config to me. 00:04:0b is 3Com, so I'm not sure who to blame: 3Com, 
nVidia, or HP.

So guys 'n' gals, check your nForce-based machines' MAC addresses, 
especially HP, especially the a1410e.

cheers,
R.