Re: News of ISC Developing BIND Patch

[Crist Clark <crist.clark () globalstar com>]

"Dominic J. Eidson" wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, John Kristoff wrote:
>
> > Fortunately, this practice rarely occurs these days (token ring / SNA
> > shops often did this) although I'd be curious if anyone still does it.
>
> box:~ # /sbin/lspci | grep 'Happy'
> 01:03.1 Ethernet controller: Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Happy Meal
> (rev 01)
> box:~ # /sbin/ifconfig | grep 'eth'
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr DE:AD:BE:EF:00:B0
> eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr DE:AD:BE:EF:00:B1
> eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr DE:AD:BE:EF:00:B2
> eth3      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr DE:AD:BE:EF:00:B3
>
> It didn't come with it's own MAC address pre-programmed...

Sun, by default, loads their manufacturer ID as the first three bytes
and uses the system ID (burned into the *mumble-mumble* chip on the
motherboard) in the last three. Since the sysID is unique this guarantees
global uniqueness.

This also means, by default, all NICs in a Sun have the same MAC. This
is considered a feature. There is a knob in the EEPROM, 'local-mac-address?',
that will use the MAC address(es) burned into the card rather than the
sysID. However, for a NIC integrated into the motherboard, like an hme,
there is no "local" MAC, just the sysID.
-- 
Crist J. Clark                               crist.clark () globalstar com
Globalstar Communications                                (408) 933-4387