On 2004-09-21, Richard Brodie <R.Brodie at rl.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Strictly speaking, the only MAC that is "valid" according to
>> the IEEE spec is the one the manufacturer put into it. However,
>> as long as you pick a MAC address that's not one of the special
>> ones (broadcast or multicast addresses), you can probably just
>> pick one at random.
>
> Actually, you can legitimately set the 'locally administered address'
> bit (the second bit on the wire). Then you have 2^46 addresses
> to play with.
You're right. I forgot about. That's probably the best choice.
Is there a good way to determine if an address is already in
use? Maybe a RARP request sent requesting the IP address for
the the MAC address you're considering using?
--
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