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License: The Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)
MAC Address Changer for Windows XP/2003By Nishant SivakumarA freeware program (with source code) that allows you to change the MAC ID of your network adapter |
C++, Windows, MFC, VS2005, Dev
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My cable ISP does something really unusual and annoying: it locks a cable modem to the N/W card's MAC address, thereby disallowing a user from either changing his network card or using a different machine. When my dad visits me, this is most inconvenient as he cannot plug his laptop into the internet and I don't have a LAN at home he can plug into. A Linuxian friend of mine suggested that I change the MAC ID, which is apparently a one-command operation on Linux-based machines.
I Googled around and found that changing the MAC under Windows involved changing certain registry values and resetting the network adapter. I barely trust my dad with his laptop, so you can imagine how I felt about trusting him to modify the registry and reset network adapters. I am not particularly crazy about coding; I do it for a living as well as an off-work hobby, but I thought it'd be a prudent idea to write a GUI application for my dad in my spare time. That's how MAC Address Changer for Windows XP/2003 came into being.
Windows XP / Windows 2003
Enter a MAC Address into the edit box and click the Change button. It validates the ID you've entered, so you cannot enter a MAC like "I am a chicken hawk" or something goofy like that.
This'll reset the MAC address to the adapter default.
Normally, both operations would be pretty straightforward. Sometimes though, with some network adapters, programmatic reset of the adapters will fail. In that case, you'll get a message box telling you that you'll need to manually reset the adapter.
If you don't have write-access to the HKLM registry key hierarchy, both operations fail.
The program can be used freely for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
The source code (decently commented, I hope) has been included. I used VC++ 2005 Beta 2 (MFC dialog application without the /clr option), so you'll need that to open the project files. All the textual UI is taken from the resource, so it should be pretty easy to have versions for other languages, say German or French for instance. If anyone modifies the source code, I request that my original copyright comment headers be left intact.
This program may not work with some network adapters and it might cause an adapter to stop working normally if MAC IDs are incessantly changed/reset. Some network administrators might have forbidden the practice of changing MAC addresses, so you might want to check with your sys-admin before you use this program.
This application was written out of personal necessity and if it is useful to other people, well and good. If not, oh well, then nothing is lost anyway. The source code has been provided for interested people.
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Last Updated: 26 May 2005 Editor: Genevieve Sovereign |
Copyright 2005 by Nishant Sivakumar Everything else Copyright © CodeProject, 1999-2010 Web19 | Advertise on the Code Project |