darkzar99 Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Someone told me that here in the United States, it is a federal crime to change the MAC address on a wireless network card, I told him that I didn't think this was true because I have done it before and have gotten caught (long story) but didnt get in trouble...so am I right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_ion Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 I'm not too sure, but Google might be able to tell you. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=i...G=Google+Search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blizz Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 IF it's illegal, then it would be because of the DMCA i suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoyBoy Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 I think m0n0wall has built in support that lets you set your MAC address, and I havent seen a disclaimer anywhere. Would you please tell us the long story about getting caught? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Alot of ethernet NAT routers (That is, NAT routers that have a WAN port and LAN port(s) that are both RJ-45) have this feature, becasue some cable ISPs requier the MAC address to be your computers MAC address, other wise they drop all your packets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickarse Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address I think because of what it means, the MAC address, that it would be illegal for a company to make a MAC address for another company. I think it's illegal if your doing it to gain access to another computers data or information that is not yours or was not intended for you. It's all really grey though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l0gic Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 NO, it is not fucking illegal to change your MAC address (on your own network). Now if you're doing it to aid theft of service in some way, that would be considered illegal, but not the act in itself. There are numerous legitimate reasons to do alter MAC addresses, and it is done quite often on enterprise equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkzar99 Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 Ok, here's what happened, last year: The school that I go to lets us rent laptops to use throughout the schoolyear. The software they put on them and all the restrictions really make it horrible. They say that they help you learn more but in reality it makes education worse. I kept getting tired of the computer breaking and having to have it in repair for a week or so, meaning i could not do any work on the computer at school. I got tired of this because it had been about 3 monts into the schoolyear and it had to be in repair about 5 times already, for software issues and hardware issues. So my parents and I decided that this had to stop. So I was going to use another laptop that I had at my house at school. So since they use MAC address filtering on the school network I had to change the MAC address on teh wireless card on MY laptop to connect to the internet at school This worked for about 6 months until they caught me, the technology specialist at our school came to my class and had to take my computer, and they was like "how did you get yoru computer to connect to the internet" and I said "changed the MAC address", and I told them that the only reason I brought my own computer was because I wanted to be able to do my schoolwork not only at school but at home as well, because they have a domain set up so your documents by default are synchronized with their server so 90% of the time you cant access them at home. They told me that they had to take my computer because using your own computer in class is the same thing as a cell phone (to them) So then that started everything and for the rest of the schoolyear I had to go to meetings about it and stuff and I think it calmed down a little bit, but now its a new schoolyear and they told me before that they do allow students to bring their own computer as long as they dont connect to the network, basically because they dont trust us. So I am in a class that uses our laptops this year, I didnt pay to rent one, and we need Internet and Command Prompt (which is blocked) so I may need to change the MAC address (with the teacher's permission) and get back online. thats why i wanted to know btw the pepole are n00bs, they say you cant bring your own computer and be online because its like having a cell phone on in class, but they WILL let you bring one but NOT get online. It is stupid and I am not going to give up, as of right now I just take my ThinkPad and I am remaining offline, but I needed to know because I may need to get back online this year sometime, just dont know when yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 This worked for about 6 months until they caught me, the technology specialist at our school came to my class and had to take my computer<snip> They told me that they had to take my computer because using your own computer in class is the same thing as a cell phone (to them) <snip> Uhh... no. I never let anyone confiscate my stuff at school. I don't care if they say you get it back... they cannot take it without your permission and if they do then as far as I'm concerned it is theft. I don't care if it was a teacher, a technician, a computer expert or the goddamn headmaster (/principle/or w.e)... they so much as look at my stuff and I jump down their throats. I hate the concept of 'confiscation' unless there's a legal reason for it to happen. If I had drugs in school - fine, booze? fine... knives? fine... my cell phone or computer? they can shove whatever 'rules' they try to use to take that stuff they like but there's no way they're taking it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l0gic Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Yeah, connecting an unauthorized computer to a network you don't own is a crime. Regardless of your intentions, it's a violation of just about every network usage agreement out there. Whether or not they had the legal right to confiscate your computer I don't know, but my experience has been that school staff usually get away with whatever they want because it is assumed kids are stupid. Also, don't rely on the "teacher's permission" to do anything related to the network, as they likely have no more right to make that call than you do. If you can, get a written statement of approval by the highest IT authority in the school (and keep a copy with the computer). If you can't, don't connect your own computer to the network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkzar99 Posted August 25, 2006 Author Share Posted August 25, 2006 but you see, thats the thing that pisses me off, there was about 8 other people in the entire district, about 5 of them went to my school, and they did the EXACT same thing that I did, but just so they could play games and not get caught, and they LET them do that even though the administration knew about it the entire year, moonlit: if that happens again this year i am not going to let them take it, that was back in the day when i didnt stand up for myself as much as i would now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkzar99 Posted August 25, 2006 Author Share Posted August 25, 2006 Also, don't rely on the "teacher's permission" to do anything related to the network, as they likely have no more right to make that call than you do. If you can, get a written statement of approval by the highest IT authority in the school (and keep a copy with the computer). If you can't, don't connect your own computer to the network. actually the teacher that would do it is one of the network administrators at my school, and my parents are supposed to talk to the hightest IT authority of the county about it also for this year also the thing that they dont get is, they told me that if i do this then it opens the entire network to me so i can do whatever i want, they also said the only way i could bring my own computer is if i purchased a laptop the exact same model with exact same specs and paid them to put all the restrictions and software on it, but the thing they need to learn is that if someone wants to screw with the network nobody can stop them, no matter what computer they are on, it doesnt matter, by them giving laptops to every student they are opening the network to everyone, it just takes more steps to gain full access So what do you have to say for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l0gic Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 From my own experience, schools have always been very reactive to security incidents (versus proactive). Unfortunately many administrators in such positions have no desire to better their networks, as it would requrie work on their part. And regardless of who gives you permission always get it in writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigbro69 Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 My laptop got seized last week; I'd love to stand up for myself like you say moonlit, but they make us sign a contract which pretty much gives them the right to do anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickarse Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 They really can't legally take your stuff... Especially since, although in your posession, your parents bought. I'd change my MAC and change the name of the laptop to match what your other one was... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoyBoy Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 What a bunch of pricks!!! Even with the school laptops, nothing is going to stop knoppix or another boot CD from being able to take out the network at classroom range. Fortunately I live in a smallish town, and we have a great IT department, its just that the most computer savvy students (me) can always find a workaround, and by the time the average noob finds out about it, its blocked up. I happen to be freinds with the district administrator, after job shadowing him for a day, which is kind of a good way to pentest the network without getting in trouble. I get thanks more often than not, Our district has almost all Mac computers, which are great for schoolwork, and run UNIX, so hey I'm not complaining. On day I get the bright idea to old <apple><s> on startup. Whuddayaknow? I get into sigle user mode, or unix command line, and basicly have the power to do anything. I tell my administrato, and he says that it is unlocked because its a pain in the ass to fix something when it breaks if you disable single user mode. Since nobody in the district knows jack shit about unix, besides myself and the admin, there isnt really a problem there. [end of pointless story] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkzar99 Posted August 26, 2006 Author Share Posted August 26, 2006 What a bunch of pricks!!! Even with the school laptops, nothing is going to stop knoppix or another boot CD from being able to take out the network at classroom range.Fortunately I live in a smallish town, and we have a great IT department, its just that the most computer savvy students (me) can always find a workaround, and by the time the average noob finds out about it, its blocked up. I happen to be freinds with the district administrator, after job shadowing him for a day, which is kind of a good way to pentest the network without getting in trouble. I get thanks more often than not, Our district has almost all Mac computers, which are great for schoolwork, and run UNIX, so hey I'm not complaining. On day I get the bright idea to old <apple><s> on startup. Whuddayaknow? I get into sigle user mode, or unix command line, and basicly have the power to do anything. I tell my administrato, and he says that it is unlocked because its a pain in the ass to fix something when it breaks if you disable single user mode. Since nobody in the district knows jack shit about unix, besides myself and the admin, there isnt really a problem there. [end of pointless story] Actually, there is a super high secuirty BIOS password and removing the CMOS battery wont clear it, the only way people have found to clear it is to short the pins on the motherboard, even teh default "dell" bios password doesnt work, so CD booting is blocked, it only allows HDD, even when you disconnect the HDD My laptop got seized last week; I'd love to stand up for myself like you say moonlit, but they make us sign a contract which pretty much gives them the right to do anything. we sort of have something like that, its called the internet and network usage agreement, I refused to sign it, but even if you dont sign it the rules still apply to you, which is stupid They really can't legally take your stuff... Especially since, although in your posession, your parents bought.I'd change my MAC and change the name of the laptop to match what your other one was... the reason i got caught i think was because I changed the MAC address to match that of the one they loaned me, but I didnt change the name, so the server thought it was legit but when they looked at teh logs they found out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Actually, there is a super high secuirty BIOS password and removing the CMOS battery wont clear it, the only way people have found to clear it is to short the pins on the motherboard, even teh default "dell" bios password doesnt work, so CD booting is blocked, it only allows HDD, even when you disconnect the HDD Is there are 'Boot menu' key? It is offten the case that you don't need to beable to change the BIOS settings to use other boot device, this feature is offten over looked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkzar99 Posted August 26, 2006 Author Share Posted August 26, 2006 As far as i know there is no boot menu key, one isnt displayed but I didn't rent that computer this year so its not that important to me right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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