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    Can you change the wireless MAC address of a SG-2440 Security Appliance?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • H Offline
      hal99
      last edited by

      Hi there!!

      I'm interested in buying the SG-2440 pfSense Security Gateway Appliance (https://store.pfsense.org/SG2440)

      Is it possible to change the MAC address of the wireless card and the system's hostname?

      Please, I want answers only from people that have done it, I want to be sure before buying it.

      Many many thanks.

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      • D Offline
        doktornotor Banned
        last edited by

        Uh. You can change both on ANY box with pfSense installed.

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        • F Offline
          firewalluser
          last edited by

          When changing the MAC address, its always worth making sure your changed mac id is still on the list otherwise made up mac id's will stand out like a sore thumb. This way any bad actors will attempt to use known bugs/backdoors which might not work on your changed mac id.

          http://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui.txt

          Capitalism, currently The World's best Entertainment Control System and YOU cant buy it! But you can buy this, or some of this or some of these

          Asch Conformity, mainly the blind leading the blind.

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          • H Offline
            hal99
            last edited by

            I asked in case it had any restriction or the wireless card has something else weird that prevents you from changing the MAC.
            yeah, that's odd but I had to be sure :P

            A friend of mine told me that the wireless card might be incompatible and i won't be able to change the MAC.

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            • H Offline
              hal99
              last edited by

              @firewalluser:

              When changing the MAC address, its always worth making sure your changed mac id is still on the list otherwise made up mac id's will stand out like a sore thumb. This way any bad actors will attempt to use known bugs/backdoors which might not work on your changed mac id.

              http://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui.txt

              Thanks for the tip, i'll keep it in my mind.

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              • C Offline
                cmb
                last edited by

                You can, of course, change the MAC if you want. Regardless of hardware.

                @firewalluser:

                When changing the MAC address, its always worth making sure your changed mac id is still on the list otherwise made up mac id's will stand out like a sore thumb. This way any bad actors will attempt to use known bugs/backdoors which might not work on your changed mac id.

                ::) I'll note that "firewalluser" is our resident conspiracy theorist. This is probably not useful in any way, shape or form. Changing the MAC in general probably isn't all that useful. But if it makes you feel better, knock yourself out. If you're going to change it, might as well change it to some other vendor ID I guess. Pick one that's actually used for wireless if you feel you must.

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                • D Offline
                  doktornotor Banned
                  last edited by

                  Pretty much. I only change MAC when

                  • it's easier and faster than calling $random stupid ISP to let them know I changed my HW so that they let me in
                  • I know it will prevent getting a dynamic public IP changed (or, to actually force the change).
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                  • F Offline
                    firewalluser
                    last edited by

                    @cmb:

                    You can, of course, change the MAC if you want. Regardless of hardware.

                    @firewalluser:

                    When changing the MAC address, its always worth making sure your changed mac id is still on the list otherwise made up mac id's will stand out like a sore thumb. This way any bad actors will attempt to use known bugs/backdoors which might not work on your changed mac id.

                    ::) I'll note that "firewalluser" is our resident conspiracy theorist. This is probably not useful in any way, shape or form. Changing the MAC in general probably isn't all that useful. But if it makes you feel better, knock yourself out. If you're going to change it, might as well change it to some other vendor ID I guess. Pick one that's actually used for wireless if you feel you must.

                    Without all the data how can you form a judgement?

                    Capitalism, currently The World's best Entertainment Control System and YOU cant buy it! But you can buy this, or some of this or some of these

                    Asch Conformity, mainly the blind leading the blind.

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                    • M Offline
                      mer
                      last edited by

                      Is it a judgement or an opinion?

                      :o

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                      • C Offline
                        cmb
                        last edited by

                        @hal99:

                        I asked in case it had any restriction or the wireless card has something else weird that prevents you from changing the MAC.

                        The only situation where I've ever heard of MAC spoofing being a problem is on a minority of the crap Realtek 8139 100 Mb NICs. Even then it works, but you have to keep the NIC in promiscuous mode all the time for it to function with a MAC other than its own. The NICs we sell, wired or wireless, certainly won't have any such issues.

                        @firewalluser:

                        Without all the data how can you form a judgement?

                        It's really far-fetched to think there are wifi exploits out there so awesome they can own you through the air (a type of vulnerability that's proven very rare to date), but so lame they're foiled by changing your MAC address.

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