Duplicate MAC Addresses

[Geoc]

I'm running SuSE 7.3 (Sparc) on a Sun Ultra 5 as a wannabe some day firewall. I was checking on some configuration changes when ifconfig showed the same MAC address for both NICs. Isn't this kinda impossible? Both the onboard and add-on NICs are Sun HMe (Happy Meal)

 

[agrange]

Yes you're right.
A MAC address (Media Access Control address) is unique and hard coded onto the NIC. The fact that two different NICs show the same MAC address is very disturbing indeed.

 

[craigey]

There are some places (especially 3rd world Countries) that just re-use the same MAC addresses (or make them up as they go along) when making network cards. After all, the chances of getting 2 identical MAC addresses is very remote.