MAC Address Changer for Windows XP/2003
A freeware program (with source code) that allows you to change the MAC ID of your network adapter.
Fig. 1 : Screenshot of the one and only main dialog
Fig. 2 : You can use getmac from a command prompt to list MAC Addresses of
your n/w adapters
Overview
My cable ISP does something really unusual and annoying - they lock a cable
modem to the N/W card's MAC Address, thereby disallowing an 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 to 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 app for my dad in my spare time. That's how MAC Address Changer for
Windows XP/2003 came into being.
Requirements
Operations
Change MAC ID
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.
Reset MAC ID
This'll reset the MAC Address to the adapter default.
Things to note
Normally, both operations would be pretty straightforward. But
sometimes, with some network adapters, programmatic reset of the adapters
will fail, in which 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.
Program usage
The program can be used freely for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Source code
The source code (decently commented I hope) has been included. I used VC++
2005 Beta 2 (MFC dialog app 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.
Pseudo-Statutory Warning
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.
Conclusion
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 lost anyway. The
source code has been provided for interested people.
History
- May 19, 2005 : Began work on program
- May 25, 2005 : Made fixes to allow program to run on Windows 2003
- May 27, 2005 : Program (with source code) first published on The
Code Project