How-To Remove Rogue Network Interfaces

Question

Level 1

6 points

How-To Remove Rogue Network Interfaces

I have a new i7 MPB that loaded a Time Machine backup on from an older MBP. I had used a lot of VMs on that older machine, Parallels, VMWare, and VirtualBox. Looking at my ifconfig I see a lot of interfaces that I think are left over from old installs. I have been having some problems with various networking issues and would like to clear all of them except my wired and wireless adapter. How can I remove all of these and have the system rebuild the default adapters? I renamed my NetworkInterfaces.plist to NetworkingInterfaces.plist.old, but that did't seem to do anything.

Here is my ifconfig:

MacBook-Pro:~ xxxxx$ ifconfig
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 fda3:f661:a96c:9d3b:c62c:3ff:fe01:86be prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0 mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether c4:2c:03:01:86:be
inet6 fe80::c62c:3ff:fe01:86be%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 10.10.10.117 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.10.10.255
media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
status: active
fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078
lladdr e8:06:88:ff:fe:bc:50:cc
media: autoselect <full-duplex>
status: inactive
en1: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 90:27:e4:ed:aa:15
inet 10.0.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.2.255
media: <unknown subtype> (<unknown type>)
status: inactive
vmnet8: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:08
inet 172.16.101.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.101.255
vmnet1: flags=8862<BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:01
inet 172.16.207.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.207.255
vboxnet0: flags=8842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00
vnic0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:1c:42:00:00:08
inet 10.211.55.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.211.55.255
media: autoselect
status: active
vnic1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:1c:42:00:00:09
inet 10.37.129.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.37.129.255
media: autoselect
status: active

i7 MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 9, 2010 11:44 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Meherally

Level 4

1,129 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:02 AM in response to aTrain78

Boot up system preferences, click on network icon. You should now be presented with your current location and on the left is a pane with all your adapters listed.

Select the one you do not want, then click the minus '-' sign at the bottom of the pane.

Also, if you want, but not necessary, you can click on Advanced... button and then Airport tab, all the access points you have connected with before are listed. If you like, select the ones you do not want and again click the minus sign to remove. They will add when you connect again to any network.

Reply

Answer 2

aTrain78 Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:22 AM in response to Meherally

In my Network Preferences I have Ethernet, AirPort, and FireWire. The vmnet8, vmnet1, vboxnet0 are not listed in there.

Reply

Answer 3

Meherally

Level 4

1,129 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:26 AM in response to aTrain78

click on the 'gear' icon and choose manage virtual interfaces. Are they listed in the drop down box? You can use the same minus sign there to remove.

Reply

Answer 4

aTrain78 Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:27 AM in response to Meherally

I checked that on all of them, and they are empty.

Reply

Answer 5

Meherally

Level 4

1,129 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:35 AM in response to aTrain78

I just ran the ifconfig in my terminal and there are similar interfaces. I believe you ought to leave them alone if you do not see any interfaces you do not need, in the above two places.

I suggest you post the network problems you are having and perhaps someone can resolve them in some way.

Reply

Answer 6

aTrain78 Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 10, 2010 1:44 AM in response to Meherally

I am having problems with MobileMe syncing and simple things like running nmap. Not sure if any of this is related but lots of little errors that I would like to clean up. I will make a new post to see if anyone has any ideas. Thanks for the help.

Nmap errors:
Starting Nmap 5.30BETA1 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2010-08-10 03:41 CDT
Warning: Unable to open interface vmnet8 -- skipping it.
Warning: Unable to open interface vmnet1 -- skipping it.

Reply

Answer 7

aTrain78 Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 26, 2010 12:20 AM in response to aTrain78

Reformatted and reinstalled factory image.

Reply

Answer 8

zaxxon72

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2010 1:19 AM in response to aTrain78

Hi,

I'm having the exact same problem. I have a rouge interface en7 that I would like to get rid of. There is nothing listed in the network preferences or the virtual interfaces, but under ifconfig:

en7: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 58:b0:35:8d:90:be
media: autoselect
status: inactive

It's a MAC adress from the Apple range, so what part of the OS installs this? This happens right after booting.

Reinstalling is not really an option, there MUST be a software way to solve it (a very wise man once said "why do it in hardware when you can solve it in software"....).

Does anyone know where the OS gets the idea from which interfaces to enable/install at boot?

regards
simon

Reply

Answer 9

zaxxon72

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2010 1:52 AM in response to zaxxon72

Edit:

this en7 is the bluetooth adapter that gets installed when I pair my iPhone and want to use internet tethering. So far, so good, culprit found. I deleted the pairing, and the en7 is gone.

Now my VPN client (checkpoint SNX) works again. (it installs en7 when connected).

Problem: When I then re-pair the iPhone, it again installs the en7, which now has two MAC Adresses. And will break the VPN client the next time. 😟

Renaming the bluetooth interface to en8 in NetworkInterfaces.plist does not survive a reboot, it's en7 back again.

How can I tell the bluetooth-adapter to use something else than en7? (yes, I hear you telling me to talk to checkpoint that they use something different, because it's entirely their fault blablabla 😉 I will not be able to talk to a company that does not even really have a 64bit safe VPN client, so the solution must be within OS X.

Who has an idea?
thanks
simon

Reply

Answer 10

zaxxon72

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2010 2:41 AM in response to zaxxon72

Edit:
My boss's Macbook pro with 99% the same setup gets an en2 interface for bluetooth, so it does not break the snx.

How the **** did that happen 😉 So there is a way to tell bluetooth which interface it should make for the tethering.

And I need you guys to tell me how....

Reply