Need help fast, service provider refuses to give mac address

Hydrate · Post by **Hydrate** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:40 pm

Heres whats going on, we owe our broadband provider some money, they will cut off our internet as from tonight, so we are looknig for other providers, but the issue is, they all want out MAC address, i need this as soon as possible, or we will have trouble getting back online. So, my question is, if the account is closed, and they refuse to give us our mac address, how can we obtain it? A response ASAP (before tonight) would be fantastic.

Jan Vooijs · Post by **Jan Vooijs** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:53 pm

The MAC is the adress of your NETwork card inside your computer (or router) has nothing to do with your provider.

Which os you are using so you can obtain your MAC adres (differs form os to os like win xp or linux or ...)

Jan V.

Fangbeast · Post by **Fangbeast** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:56 pm

1. I assume you are talking about the MAC address on your cable/DSL modem (Am I wrong?) If that is the case, your modem should have a web address into which you can log whether you are connected to your ISP or not and it will list the MAC address for you somewhere in the configuration screens.

2. If you mean the MAC address of your computer's ehternet card, you go into control panel, system, hardware, device manager, network adapters and bring up the property sheet for any installed adapters.

As far as I know, most ISP's authenticate you via the MAC address built into the modem they suplied you (But I have been known to be wrong)

Hydrate · Post by **Hydrate** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:08 pm

Thats what i thought, but to sign up it says the format needs to be in the following format:
Start with either: BBIP , BBDS FTIP
Must contain a "/"
Must have 12-13 characters before the "/"
Must have 5 characters after the "/"

Finding my mac address that looks anything like this, is hard.

netmaestro · Post by **netmaestro** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:18 pm

You can discover the MAC addresses of your computer's network adapters by opening a cmd window and typing ipconfig /all assuming you're using XP. But Fangbeast is probably right about them wanting the MAC address for the modem, which I don't know how to get. If you have a router it can probably bring it up somehow.

Hydrate · Post by **Hydrate** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:21 pm

netmaestro wrote:You can discover the MAC addresses of your computer's network adapters by opening a cmd window and typing ipconfig /all assuming you're using XP. But Fangbeast is probably right about them wanting the MAC address for the modem, which I don't know how to get. If you have a router it can probably bring it up somehow.

As i said, its the incorrect format for any providers to get, i have my outgoing mac address from my router easily, if it were as simple as that i would be waiting for my new connection already.

Fangbeast · Post by **Fangbeast** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:57 pm

Just found this on a support site which explains things a bit better

"MAC (not MAC address) stands for Migration Authorisation Code - which lets you switch broadband providers, without you having any downtime, having to get broadband removed, and reinstalled on your phone line, etc etc - it cuts down the switching time from 3-4 weeks, down to 1 week - where you only get about 10 minutes of no connectivity, rather than 3-4 weeks worth....

A MAC Key is a unique code which allows you to easily move from one broadband provider to another. A provider agrees to your move when they give you a MAC key.

MAC Keys always begin with BBIP or FTIP, followed by 6 or 8 digits, a slash and then 5 more letters or numbers. e.g. "BBIP87654321/AB12C".

MAC Keys expire after 30 days"
"

Fangbeast · Post by **Fangbeast** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:03 pm

So what it seems the above information is saying is that your current provider will not give you a MAC code because you owe them money and your new provider needs that code to authorise your connection.

It doesn't mean that your new provided will not give you a new connection without it, just that they will take their own sweet time to do it because they cannot verify that you are a pre-existing broadband customer. (They can probably check payment history, good customer status with that as well)

Hydrate · Post by **Hydrate** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:06 pm

Fangbeast wrote:So what it seems the above information is saying is that your current provider will not give you a MAC code because you owe them money and your new provider needs that code to authorise your connection.

It doesn't mean that your new provided will not give you a new connection without it, just that they will take their own sweet time to do it because they cannot verify that you are a pre-existing broadband customer. (They can probably check payment history, good customer status with that as well)

That really was the issue, not wanting to wait for 4 weeks for an account, but if i must, then i must, thank you for your help everyone.