changing my mac address....

Why? The MAC address is set at the factory, and as far as I know can't be changed.

 

Some routers have the function of mimicing your machine's MAC address - check the manual. This can be useful for times when your broadband service is tied the the MAC address of a specific machine. Clone that address into the Router and you may not have to get the provider to reprovision the service.

 

I'm pretty sure websites don't block access based on MAC address.

 

Though college/boarding school IT departments are known to ....

 

see skunk's post...unless you do the router/cloning thing, you can't change a MAC address. It's specific to the hardware and set at the factory.

it may be that you were able to access the website without the router because your ISP issued you a new IP address. When websites block access, they typically block either a specific IP address or a specific domain.

 

What makes you think that your router's IP address is the same as your Macs?

In fact, if your router had its routing ability turned on, then they are GUARANTEED to be different, as the router would be doing NAT and your Mac would have the 'internal' IP address, not the external one. In that scenario, check and see if your Mac is acquiring its settings from the DHCP server.
What you have done by plugging in the Macintosh is to force it to get a brand new IP address from the ISP's DHCP server.

Normally, the router would have the ISP issued IP address and the Mac would simply get a private IP from the router. This way, the ISP only ever sees the router's IP, not the Mac.

ISP > 24.65.xxx.aaa > Router > 192.168.xxx.xxx > Macintosh

now

ISP > 24.65.xxx.bbb > Macintosh


IF the ISP has blocked the MAC address instead of the IP address, it still holds true


ISP > Router on MAC 12.34.56.78.90 > Macintosh

ISP > Macintosh on MAC 78.90.12.34.54


AND, as posted earlier, there IS a way for many routers to change, or spoof, their MAC address. But you'll have to read the manual.

 

you can change the mac address from terminal using if config.

 

if the machine supports it, which (at least as far as Apple goes) in many cases it does not, unless you modify the kernel. It's a pandora's box that's best left alone...IMHO

 

Errm... Maybe you blocked your IP address, rather than your MAC address. If it works by plugging the phone lead into your computer, you'd be connecting by dial-up, not by your DSL/cable as you would through the router, therefore your IP address would be different, not MAC address.

 

God knows what'll happen if you ever get within range of another computer which shares your new MAC address...

 

I'd change it again =)

It's not a permanent change anyway. When you reboot it reverts back to the manufacturers mac address.

James

 

Pretty extremely unlikely; given that there are 2 to the power of 48 different MAC addresses out there, and the two computers would have to be in the same network to cause problems.

 

What is most likely happening is, you have an IP from the cable company that is tied to the MAC address of the router and that IP has been blocked by the website. When you changed the MAC address on your router, you got a new IP address from the cable company that has not been blocked by the website. Same would hold true for the Mac that you pulled directly into the cable modem.

The Ethernet frame with your MAC address in it is stripped off when it gets to your router.