MAC address and wifi

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MAC address and wifi

I just bought a MacBook Pro. It was set up at the shop.

When I brought it home, the MAC address showed up as f8:1e:df:e2:d6:71

My Dlink router says it is an invalid address. I've never had the problem with my other Macs and iPod Touches on my home network.

Any idea how I can make it a valid address?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2010 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

sig

Level 8

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Mar 8, 2010 12:20 PM in response to Bluephish

Re-power the router. Turn it off, let it sit for a minute and then power it back on. Post back the results.

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Answer 2

Bluephish Author

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Mar 8, 2010 4:30 PM in response to sig

Turned off the router and back on again. Restarted MBP. Still shows f8:etc MAC address.

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Answer 3

sig

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Mar 8, 2010 5:31 PM in response to Bluephish

Are you connecting via ethernet or airport?

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Answer 4

Bluephish Author

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Mar 8, 2010 5:54 PM in response to sig

Airport

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Answer 5

sig

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Mar 8, 2010 5:56 PM in response to Bluephish

So you are having issues connecting to the router?

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Answer 6

Bluephish Author

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Mar 8, 2010 6:03 PM in response to sig

Yes. When I go to my Dlink page to allow MAC address, it says my MAC address is invalid and will not allow me to add.

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Answer 7

Bluephish Author

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Mar 8, 2010 6:18 PM in response to Bluephish

Does it also matter that is says my Airport has a self assigned IP address? And will not be able to connect to the internet.

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Answer 8

sig

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Mar 9, 2010 2:57 AM in response to Bluephish

"When I go to my Dlink page to allow MAC address, it says my MAC address is invalid and will not allow me to add. "

You should need to do this unless you are set up to deny access to every MAC address except what you choose. Why are you set up that way?

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Answer 9

sig

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Mar 9, 2010 2:58 AM in response to Bluephish

"Does it also matter that is says my Airport has a self assigned IP address? And will not be able to connect to the internet"

It means you are not connected to the router or any network. You need to reconfigure the router. Is there a setting to bring it back to factory settings?

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Answer 10

Mar 9, 2010 4:08 AM in response to Bluephish

You can determine your Airport ethernet MAC address from System Preferences -> Network.
f8 in the first field seems suspicious. The first two or three fields specify the manufacturer of the hardware circuitry that was installed in the MBP. (Apple is not the manufacturer).

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Answer 11

Duane

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124,267 points

Mar 9, 2010 8:27 PM in response to Bluephish

The best thing is to disable MAC address filtering. It adds no security to your wireless connection. The MAC addresses of connected clients are easily captured and cloned. The best wireless security is WPA2 with a long non-dictionary password.

If you are unable or unwilling to disable MAC address filtering, ensure that you are NOT entering the colons (':') when you enter the MAC address. You should only be entering f81edfe2d671 NOT f8:1e:df:e2:d6:71

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Answer 12

Duane

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Mar 9, 2010 8:29 PM in response to Retired Engineer

f8 in the first field seems suspicious.

It is the same for my MacBook Pro.

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Answer 13

Bluephish Author

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Mar 9, 2010 10:20 PM in response to Duane

The home network has MAC filtering because our connections seem to drop out from our router all the time.

Very strange that my Airport iD starts with f8 as all my other computers (PC and Mac) and ipod Touch are all 00 addresses.

So I am concluding that
1) I cannot change my MAC address.
2) My dlink cannot accept my MAC address.

I am currently spoofing my address. Which is heaps annoying because I have to go through the process of changing it everytime I turn on my computer.

I have yet to try this Mac on other wifi systems. But I hope I won't run into any trouble with wifi that might need my MAC address.

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Answer 14

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,185 points

Mar 15, 2010 8:03 PM in response to Bluephish

It's likely the D-Link firmware has a bug.

For some reason, many manufacturers "assumed" that MAC addresses needed to start with "00." That's very wrong.

You can see the manufacturer/MAC address mappings for yourself here.

Of note:

<pre>
F8-1E-DF (hex) Apple, Inc
F81EDF (base 16) Apple, Inc
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino CA 95014
UNITED STATES</pre>

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