[Tfug] HP/nForce MAC address set incorrectly

[Adrian]

On Thursday 19 October 2006 12:15, Rich Smit wrote:
[snip]
> 
> 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.
> 


Hmmm... interesting! Depending on wether the network is on card or is built-in 
to the motherboard, I would tend to blame the circuit board manufacturer. It 
is their responsibility to properly program the serial EEPROM that the 
network chip reads its configuration from. I would try screaming at HP and 
try to get a freebee for pointing out their obvious oversight (really play up 
how your entire LAN is broken becuase "all" your new machines have the same 
ID), might even get something good if you really try!!!

HP might be able to issue a patch to properly program the network chip 
EEPROM... though they would have to do something to generate a unique MAC for 
each machine (hash of the machine serial number perhaps?) and have a way to 
actually write at programming voltage levels, which probably wasn;t built 
onto the actaul circuit board...

Adrian