In general, I thought IP addresses are mutable while MACs stay the same, and I thought that's why the outside world uses IPs to identify networks while routers inside a network use MACs to identify specific devices. If you can change your MAC arbitrarily, doesn't that risk making the router's job more difficult? Why not just assign yourself a different internal IP?

[–] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Changing your MAC will make older messages undeliverable, but that just means the connection will be momentarily interrupted until you establish new connections after re-connecting to the WiFi.

Why not just assign yourself a different internal IP? Because a. the router probably wants to assign you one itself via DHCP; and b. the router isn't looking at your IP address to lock you out; it's looking at your MAC address.

If your IP address is where in cyberspace you are, a MAC address is who you are. If you want to fool the bouncer, change your name, not your address.

[–] radix@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I see! Thanks for the explanation! Didn't put two and two together to realize that the router basically reads MACs and writes IPs.

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