So I’ve been running with a cloned MAC address for about four days, and… so far it seems to have resolved the issue. The gigabit router and the old Netgear wireless access point have of course been removed from the network and powered down. The PCWRT router is handling the WAN connections and all the home devices.
I am not sure, however, that the cloned MAC address has really “taken”. My PCWRT router shipped with an public-facing MAC address of XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:0F and a private-facing MAC address of XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:0E. In Settings -> Internet -> Override MAC Address I entered the MAC address off the Gigabit router YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:C1. However… on the Status page, under Internet MAC Address in the top left hand corner, the old XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:0F is still displaying. I would have expected this to match the YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:C1 address that I set in Settings->Internet. Anyhow, populating the “Override MAC Address” and saving that setting is what appears to have fixed the router.
I have the following questions:
1. Why would overriding the MAC address fix the issue? Is there something “bad” about the XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:0F address, or something “special” about the YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:C1 address? The gigabit router was just purchased off the shelf and the YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:C1 address was what it shipped with;
2. Would it work just as well to set any other random address, as long as it was not XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:0F?
Thanks!
