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Posted by Aluxe on October 18, 2006, 12:29 am
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On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:33:59 -0800, Dana wrote:
>> Changing the MAC address is totally pointless.
>
> While I see where you are coming from, I would not say it is pointless.
> There are valid and invalid reasons for wanting to change a MAC address.
Hi Dana,
I'll give you a real life, albeit embarrassing, reason for changing a MAC
address.
When I was in high school, a student made a lot of fun of my body. Said I
was a "twiggy" (those old enough out there will know what that means).
Well, recently I was back home, and I saw her, and she looked positively
huge. She must have doubled in weight. I wanted to get her back. So, I
logged into NetZero from a blocked phone line, and I sent her a message
calling her all sorts of names to get her back. I even said I was a
"friend" of hers way back when but I thought she looked like a pig now.
Point is, I figured the only way they could track that email I sent her was
through my MAC address since the IP address would have been registered to
NetZero and the phone number I called from would have been blocked.
Isn't that a case where the MAC address change afforded me some privacy?
Or did I give myself away even then?
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Posted by Dana on October 18, 2006, 12:51 am
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> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:33:59 -0800, Dana wrote:
> >> Changing the MAC address is totally pointless.
> >
> > While I see where you are coming from, I would not say it is pointless.
> > There are valid and invalid reasons for wanting to change a MAC address.
>
> Hi Dana,
> I'll give you a real life, albeit embarrassing, reason for changing a MAC
> address.
>
> When I was in high school, a student made a lot of fun of my body. Said I
> was a "twiggy" (those old enough out there will know what that means).
>
> Well, recently I was back home, and I saw her, and she looked positively
> huge. She must have doubled in weight. I wanted to get her back. So, I
> logged into NetZero from a blocked phone line, and I sent her a message
> calling her all sorts of names to get her back. I even said I was a
> "friend" of hers way back when but I thought she looked like a pig now.
>
> Point is, I figured the only way they could track that email I sent her
was
> through my MAC address since the IP address would have been registered to
> NetZero and the phone number I called from would have been blocked.
>
> Isn't that a case where the MAC address change afforded me some privacy?
> Or did I give myself away even then?
The person would have never seen your MAC address, unless they got a court
order for your ISP to show it to them.
The only mac address a station will see, is the next station upstream.
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Posted by Aluxe on October 18, 2006, 1:15 am
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>> Isn't that a case where the MAC address change afforded me some privacy?
>> Or did I give myself away even then?
>
> The person would have never seen your MAC address, unless they got a court
> order for your ISP to show it to them.
> The only mac address a station will see, is the next station upstream.
Hi Dana,
Sorry to keep hammering on this but the question I asked was "didn't
changing the MAC address add a modicum of privacy to my email"?
For example, if she had a packet sniffer or if she got a court order to
track the email, wouldn't the MAC address have been a key component of the
traceback?
And, if it was, wouldn't the bogus MAC address I provided have added an
extra level of privacy to that traceback?
Yes or no is what I'd expect the answer to be.
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Posted by Dana on October 18, 2006, 1:34 am
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> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:51:59 -0800, Dana wrote:
> >> Isn't that a case where the MAC address change afforded me some
privacy?
> >> Or did I give myself away even then?
> >
> > The person would have never seen your MAC address, unless they got a
court
> > order for your ISP to show it to them.
> > The only mac address a station will see, is the next station upstream.
>
> Hi Dana,
> Sorry to keep hammering on this but the question I asked was "didn't
> changing the MAC address add a modicum of privacy to my email"?
No.
>
> For example, if she had a packet sniffer or if she got a court order to
> track the email, wouldn't the MAC address have been a key component of the
> traceback?
Your ISP will always have whatever MAC address you use, hence if they were
given a court order, they would have to give it up.
>
> And, if it was, wouldn't the bogus MAC address I provided have added an
> extra level of privacy to that traceback?
No, because your isp would know it is associated with your account, hence
they would have to give that info out if there was a court order.
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Posted by Aluxe on October 18, 2006, 1:51 am
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>> And, if it was, wouldn't the bogus MAC address I provided have added an
>> extra level of privacy to that traceback?
>
> No, because your isp would know it is associated with your account, hence
> they would have to give that info out if there was a court order.
Hi Dana,
I do appreciate your taking the time to explain this to me.
Let me see if I have it correct this time:
CASE 1 (home ISP):
In the case of a home ISP, where I have to log in with a user name and a
password from a dedicated account, changing the MAC address provides
absolutely no additional privacy since the ISP knows the MAC address used,
even if it is 00-00-00-00-00-00.
CASE 2 (NetZero dialup):
Even in the case of NetZero dialup, there may not be an additional level of
privacy gained by changing the MAC address because you have to first
establish an account with NetZero which requires a previous account which
will have your original MAC address associated with it - which can always
be traced back to you by your ISP.
CASE 3 (hotel free hotspot):
However, in the case of a hotel freebie hotspot, changing the MAC address
to 00-00-00-00-00-00 DOES PROVIDE AN EXTRA LEVEL OF PRIVACY because in this
case, the MAC address is the only factor they have in tracing the
connection back to you.
Did I summarize the implications of changing the MAC address correctly?
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