two different eth0 hardware addresses?

nss · Guru Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 389

ifconfig and gnome's network tools show different harware addresses for eth0. Is this normal? If so, why is this and if not, how can I correct? A network I would like to join requires I register my hardware address. I've been unsuccessful connecting to this network and noticed this. Furthermore, the hardware address shown by gnome's network tools is not constant. It has changed since a few boots ago.
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gentoo good to be true

desertViking · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject:

I don't know if it's normal. When I registered a laptop on campus, I gave them the address from ifconfig, and that worked OK. The MAC should stay the same. The access point may change. This from wikipedia (sample ifconfig output):

The HWaddr is what I needed to provide.

nss · Guru Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 389

I tried both addresses. The weird thing is that when I attempt to register the address from gnome, the registration completes, i.e. says I've successfully registered. When I attempt to register the address from ifconfig, nothing happens. In both cases, I am unable to connect to the network.
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gentoo good to be true

desertViking · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

Sounds like gnome is teasing you. I'd be more inclined to trust ifconfig. As to what's wrong, not exactly sure.
What information is the registration process asking for, and what is the expected result? I assumed that you were being required to provide the hardware address and not the access point or internet address.