Cloning MAC Address

talon101

Hi!

I recently purchased the netgate SG-1100. Seeing how it's an upgrade to my regular router. What I want to do is to clone the MAC address of the coax of my Verizon FiOS router, turn it into a Bridge, and use my pfsense as my fw/router.
I'm not asking how to do the bridging aspect, since there are tons of forums/threads dedicated to the topic; what I'm having problems is the MAC cloning part.
Once I'm in the web interface, I put the MAC I want to clone into the field of MAC Cloning in the Setup wizard (can't seem to do it in the Interface>Assignment>WAN).
That goes fine, but then I am not able to access the pfsense again.

-I have the pfsense attached to my laptop and not attached to the network.
-I assigned it a static private IP, e.g. 192.168.1.2
-Going through setup wizard, once I put the new MAC address in to clone the fios router, I can't access pfsense anymore. (ping, web).
-I can still access the CLI via serial connection

I've been trying to figure out why this won't work. Of course, if I reset all the settings back to factory, I can get back in, but would like some help with this. thank you very much! :)

**I put this into this thread since it's dealing with MAC address, hence L2, but if this is in the wrong thread, I apologize.

JKnott

????

I didn't know coax cable had MAC addresses.

I'm not sure what you're doing, however, you can change the MAC address of the WAN interface on the WAN config page. However, you say you want a bridge. Well, bridges are transparent, so that MAC won't appear in the frames that pass through the bridge.

talon101

hey JKnott,

Let me clarify. The coax does have a MAC address, but I guess I confused everyone when I said that when I was actually referring to the Broadband/Ethernet on the FiOS router. (sick with the flu and my mind can't think straight)...

Don't mind the broadband connection (coax), as I had upgraded my connection and had Verizon turn on the ethernet port in the ONT. It doesn't do anything anymore so I just disabled it. (the macs are all unique)

currently setup is like this
ONT > cat5e > fios router > Switch

I want to "bypass" fios router, utilize the sg-1100 as my fw and router.
ONT > cat5e > (fios router as a bridge between Coax/Ethernet) > pfsense > switch.

The reason I can't get rid of the fios router is because its needed for some functionality for the TV/VOD/Guide.

But I'm not asking about how to do it, because there are plenty of threads on the internet (as well as on here) that I can read.
Part of the solution/problem is that in order to accomplish this, you need to clone the mac address for the broadband connection/ethernet onto the WAN port of the SG-1100, so that Verizon can communicate with it as well as send the information mentioned above.

I understand I can change the MAC of the WAN interface, but when I do, my SG-1100 freezes and I can't get back into the web config anymore. Basically have to do a hard reset in order to get back into the pfsense. Wondered if anyone has seen this problem or have a solution to this. thanks!

Grimson

https://forum.netgate.com/topic/139859/sg-1100-running-real-vlans/8 the SG-1100 is essentially a router-on-stick in one case. You can't simply change the MAC of just the WAN port, as this is a switch port.

You can assign the parent interface mvneta0 and then change it's MAC, which will affect all ports and create a conflict with the original device if it's still connected. So either get rid of the original device, put it on a different L2 if possible, register the SG-1100 MAC with your provider or return the SG-1100 and get a device with more dedicated interfaces.

It really pays to research the hardware before you buy it.