One MAC or two

1. Current system is a Win98/Linux PC connected to
Internet via wireless modem (supplied via ISP) through
a router (first emplaced as hardware firewall. This
is a Trendnet 802.11g wireless router.)
I now wish to add the upstairs WinXP PC (with a
Belkin 802.11g wireless card) so these two PCs can
communicate and the XP PC can get ethernet access by
wireless (additional to phone line DUN.)

2. Linux Network info gives a MAC address 00...CA which
Trendnet (after logging on) also identifies with the
name of my hub PC. But another Trendnet menu for /Status/
Device information shows two MACs
Wireless MAC = 00...CA = home hub
WAN MAC = 00...34 (connected as DHCP client)

Is the WAN MAC the address of the Trendnet web site
to which I am connected?
Do I need to make these two MACs the same in order
to build my home network (connecting wirelessly the
Win98 and WinXP PCs)?

Don P
Carlsbad Springs, Canada

Don Phillipson wrote:
[color=blue]
> 1. Current system is a Win98/Linux PC connected to
> Internet via wireless modem (supplied via ISP) through
> a router (first emplaced as hardware firewall. This
> is a Trendnet 802.11g wireless router.)
> I now wish to add the upstairs WinXP PC (with a
> Belkin 802.11g wireless card) so these two PCs can
> communicate and the XP PC can get ethernet access by
> wireless (additional to phone line DUN.)
>
> 2. Linux Network info gives a MAC address 00...CA which
> Trendnet (after logging on) also identifies with the
> name of my hub PC. But another Trendnet menu for /Status/
> Device information shows two MACs
> Wireless MAC = 00...CA = home hub
> WAN MAC = 00...34 (connected as DHCP client)
>
> Is the WAN MAC the address of the Trendnet web site
> to which I am connected?
> Do I need to make these two MACs the same in order
> to build my home network (connecting wirelessly the
> Win98 and WinXP PCs)?
>
> Don P
> Carlsbad Springs, Canada[/color]

You do realize that you posted a windows question in a linux newsgroup?

My answer would be, install linux.



--

Jerry McBride (jmcbride@mail-on.us)

On Sun, 11 Nov 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in
article <fh7jl9$ktc$1@theodyn.ncf.ca>, Don Phillipson wrote:
[color=blue]
>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.[/color]

Loose the mime and vcard please.
[color=blue]
>1. Current system is a Win98/Linux PC connected to
>Internet via wireless modem (supplied via ISP) through
>a router (first emplaced as hardware firewall. This
>is a Trendnet 802.11g wireless router.)
> I now wish to add the upstairs WinXP PC (with a
>Belkin 802.11g wireless card) so these two PCs can
>communicate and the XP PC can get ethernet access by
>wireless (additional to phone line DUN.)[/color]

I'm not sure what this has to do with Linux, but OK.
[color=blue]
>2. Linux Network info gives a MAC address 00...CA which
>Trendnet (after logging on) also identifies with the
>name of my hub PC. But another Trendnet menu for /Status/
>Device information shows two MACs
>Wireless MAC = 00...CA = home hub
>WAN MAC = 00...34 (connected as DHCP client)[/color]

You want to read something about Ethernet networking (yes, the
wireless stuff uses the same concepts). The MAC address is only
used on the "local" link. The TCP packet that contains the web
request and resulting web page is inside an IP packet - which
has IP addresses showing source and ULTIMATE destination. The
IP packet is inside an Ethernet frame, and that frame has the
_immediate_ source and _immediate_ destination MAC addresses.
That is how the packets are passed about on the Ethernet (and your
wireless). If you were able to use 'traceroute' (or TRACERT.EXE as
you seem to be more used to windoze), you'd see that the IP packet
may take a number of steps to reach the destination. Your Freenet
network seems to be about 21 hops from where I am. At each one of
those hops, there would be a completely different MAC address used
as the source and destination address. The MAC address is a 48 bit
binary, usually expressed as six pairs of hexadecimal numbers, such
as '08:00:20:EA:5F:22'. The first six digits (here, '08:00:20')
identify the manufacturer of the network device (here, Sun
Microsystems). Last I checked (end of last month), there are some
10800 different manufacturers. The last six digits (here 'EA:5F:22')
are supposed to be unique to this manufacturer's product run. The
whole idea is that the 48 bit pattern will NEVER appear on more than
one network device on a given LAN. As the manufacturer has no idea
who is buying his product, this 48 bit pattern is simply used on
one device, and never repeated - assuring that it won't be repeated
on the LAN.
[color=blue]
>Is the WAN MAC the address of the Trendnet web site
>to which I am connected?[/color]

/sbin/arp -a I think windoze has a similar command
[color=blue]
>Do I need to make these two MACs the same in order
>to build my home network (connecting wirelessly the
>Win98 and WinXP PCs)?[/color]

Try it and see what happens. As long as you have console access to
return things "as was", you will learn that making them the same
merely breaks your network so that it won't work. If you have the
usual windoze "personal firewall" software, it may even claim that
someone is attacking you.

40490 Jun 22 2000 Home-Network-mini-HOWTO
708351 Nov 14 2005 IP-Masquerade-HOWTO
17605 Jul 21 2004 Masquerading-Simple-HOWTO
203891 Sep 29 2004 NET3-4-HOWTO
45604 Apr 18 2006 Networking-Overview-HOWTO
155096 Jan 23 2004 Security-HOWTO
71626 Apr 4 2004 Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO

There's a few documents you might find useful. You may also find
that [url]news://alt.internet.wireless[/url] is a more useful newsgroup.

Old guy