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Airport extreme and MAC address

W

willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Hi

I was about to buy an Airport Extreme to replace my existing Netgear router because the latter can't handle the distance between the bedroom and living room. However I have heard that there is a problem with the Extreme in that it doesn't allow you to change it's MAC address and therefore is difficult to use with some ISPs.

I will hold my sweaty little mitt up and confess I have no idea what this means but it has caused me to worry a bit. Can anyone tell me if my worries are unfounded?

Thanks

Willie
 
flopticalcube said:
It would be a pretty poor ISP that didn't let you change your MAC address.
Click to expand...

Hi

As I said I'm a bit ignorant about what this means. Are you saying it is simply a question of phoning them up and telling them what MAC address you want and they do it? Is it really that simple? I only ask because this was raised as an issue about the Extreme and I wasn't sure what to make of it

Thanks

Willie
 
In most cases its just plug and play. Your MAC address is unique to your networking equipment and should never be changed. Your IP address, on the other hand, is provided to you by your ISP, usually automatically when you plug your router into your cable/dsl modem.
 
With my cable modem, if I change the router, it does remember the previous routers MAC address. Solution? Power-down the cable modem before swapping routers.

I don't think that the Airport does allow you to change MAC addresses, but on the other hand, that feature is so buried in the routers that I've used that do support it that I just can't imagine an Internet provider would require people to mess around with it.

willie45, I'd call your Internet provider to make sure, but unless they're doing something really odd on their end, you shouldn't have to worry about it.
 
I'm sure your ISP will let you change your MAC router address - you just have to call and tell them to change it on their system so it will connect to their services.

I just changed cable modems and I powered down the old, set-up the new, and it connected, but it would only take me to the cable's website making me try to install it as though I were the technician asking for passwords and account registration. I had to call, tell them the new MAC address and then it worked fine.

Also, a thing to keep in mind is that some people are having problems with the airport card itself, and some have bought the airport express and it didn't make any difference on the reception quality. e.g. https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-323239.html

EDIT: Here's another one to read as well.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4603310
 
All right. Thanks for your help folks

Wow killerrobot, I just read the threads. This is not good news for those people affected by the loss of connections. I can't believe this has been going on since May with no sign of a resolution. It doesn't seem restricted to the N type routers though and affects people with g as well. I have had a couple of disconnects but nothing too bad so far. I hope Apple fix this soon although people have been complaining about it for nearly 6 months.

Willie
 
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