Intel's Centrino N wireless fascism

Recently I purchased a new laptop with an Intel Centrino N 130 wireless NIC.

I quickly discovered that Intel has deliberately removed from the
Windows 7 drivers any ability to change the adapter's MAC address.
Predictably, the docs claim it's "for your own good," or something to
that effect.

I needn't catalogue the numerous, perfectly legitimate reasons one might
want to spoof a different MAC address on a wireless NIC. But boy am I
cheesed at Intel's paternalistic fascism and/or ignorant, naive outlook.

I'm sure the "bad guys" have already figured out a way around this
speedbump. How do the rest of us go about overcoming this artificial
limitation?

Objekt

On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:56:36 -0600, Objekt <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Recently I purchased a new laptop with an Intel Centrino N 130 wireless NIC.
>
>I quickly discovered that Intel has deliberately removed from the
>Windows 7 drivers any ability to change the adapter's MAC address.
>Predictably, the docs claim it's "for your own good," or something to
>that effect.
>
>I needn't catalogue the numerous, perfectly legitimate reasons one might
>want to spoof a different MAC address on a wireless NIC. But boy am I
>cheesed at Intel's paternalistic fascism and/or ignorant, naive outlook.
>
>I'm sure the "bad guys" have already figured out a way around this
>speedbump. How do the rest of us go about overcoming this artificial
>limitation?
>
>Objekt

You're sure that the motive force was "fascism", and not a desire to
pare down features on a bottom-of-the-line product?

Meanwhile, at the alt.internet.wireless Job Justification Hearings, Objekt
chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> Intel's paternalistic fascism

This kind of hyperbole is likely to decrease the number of useful responses
you get.

> I'm sure the "bad guys" have already figured out a way around this
> speedbump. How do the rest of us go about overcoming this artificial
> limitation?

Try booting off an Ubuntu live CD and then changing it. Bear in mind, the
restriction may be in the firmware of the device so using different drivers
[ie a different OS] may not work around your problem.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
10:05:58 up 17 days, 12:48, 6 users, load average: 0.16, 0.23, 0.41
"People believe any quote they read on the internet
if it fits their preconceived notions." - Martin Luther King

On 8/19/2011 16:43, Aaron Leonard wrote:
> You're sure that the motive force was "fascism", and not a desire to
> pare down features on a bottom-of-the-line product?

Not sure of the motive, just how it comes across. Straight from Intel's
webpage:

"Intel® WiFi Products
How can I change the MAC address for my wireless adapter?

Knowledgebase Article

The Media Access Control (MAC) address for Intel® wireless adapters
cannot be changed.

The MAC address is a unique identifier for each network adapter, wired
or wireless, and cannot be modified or changed as it is hard-coded on
each device.

Some third-party software applications are capable of "spoofing" an
adapter MAC address to a different address. However, this feature is not
supported nor recommended by Intel due to security considerations.

Since the 12.x wireless driver package, the possibility of "spoofing"
the MAC address was blocked to prevent this type of practice."

So we're expected to believe that an important feature has been removed
for "security" reasons.

Note also that the drivers are the same, regardless of which of Intel's
mini-PCIe wireless adapters you own. Feature-removal for a "bottom of
the line" product isn't the answer here. As far as I can tell, it's the
same drier package for the entire current product line. If you know of
another manufacturer who doesn't artificially cripple their product, I'd
like to know too.

I do appreciate your attempt to address my question, rather than
question my writing style. It's nice to know there is something besides
spammers and trolls left on Usenet.

Objekt

On 8/20/2011 03:09, alexd wrote:
> Meanwhile, at the alt.internet.wireless Job Justification Hearings, Objekt
> chose the tried and tested strategy of:
>
>> Intel's paternalistic fascism
>
> This kind of hyperbole is likely to decrease the number of useful responses
> you get.

Sort of like cherrypicking out-of-context to critique someone's writing
style?

>> I'm sure the "bad guys" have already figured out a way around this
>> speedbump. How do the rest of us go about overcoming this artificial
>> limitation?
>
> Try booting off an Ubuntu live CD and then changing it. Bear in mind, the
> restriction may be in the firmware of the device so using different drivers
> [ie a different OS] may not work around your problem.

Unfortunately that does appear to be the case, at least on the first
pass. I'm shopping for a different wireless adapter.

Objekt

On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:42:53 -0600, Objekt
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Since the 12.x wireless driver package, the possibility of "spoofing"
>the MAC address was blocked to prevent this type of practice."

Proset 12.x was released in 2008, so this has been the situation for
at least 3 years. Google found a few complaints that agree with your
observation.

However, this page claims that it can be done.
<http://technical.pbworks.com/w/page/20252727/Changing-MAC-Address-of-the-system>
I'm playing on vacation this week so I won't have time to try it until
next week.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 8/20/2011 10:54, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:42:53 -0600, Objekt
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Since the 12.x wireless driver package, the possibility of "spoofing"
>> the MAC address was blocked to prevent this type of practice."
>
> Proset 12.x was released in 2008, so this has been the situation for
> at least 3 years. Google found a few complaints that agree with your
> observation.
>
> However, this page claims that it can be done.
> <http://technical.pbworks.com/w/page/20252727/Changing-MAC-Address-of-the-system>
> I'm playing on vacation this week so I won't have time to try it until
> next week.

As you may have already realized, that page only addresses Windows up to
XP. Unfortunately, most of the info I can find is similar. I have
found some discussion of changing wireless MAC under Windows 7, but
editing the registry has not worked for me so far.

Changing the MAC address of the same notebook's wired NIC was trivially
easy, so I think that changing the wireless MAC has been made hard for
artificial reasons.

Objekt

Meanwhile, at the alt.internet.wireless Job Justification Hearings, Objekt
chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> On 8/20/2011 03:09, alexd wrote:

>> This kind of hyperbole is likely to decrease the number of useful
>> responses you get.
>
> Sort of like cherrypicking out-of-context to critique someone's writing
> style?

No, not like that at all.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
20:56:34 up 30 min, 1 user, load average: 0.11, 0.15, 0.17
"People believe any quote they read on the internet
if it fits their preconceived notions." - Martin Luther King

>> You're sure that the motive force was "fascism", and not a desire to
>> pare down features on a bottom-of-the-line product?
>
>Not sure of the motive, just how it comes across. Straight from Intel's
>webpage:
[ ... ]
>Since the 12.x wireless driver package, the possibility of "spoofing"
>the MAC address was blocked to prevent this type of practice."

>Objekt

Interesting. I work rather intimately with Intel wireless adapters, on
a daily or weekly basis, and had not noticed that the MAC-spoofing feature
had gone missing.

With older adapters such as the 3945 or 4965, you should be able to load
up the 11.5 driver and spoof away (assuming that you're running XP.)
The 130 adapter isn't supported with any driver prior to 14.0, however.

Aaron

On 8/23/2011 10:45, Aaron Leonard wrote:
>>> You're sure that the motive force was "fascism", and not a desire to
>>> pare down features on a bottom-of-the-line product?
>>
>> Not sure of the motive, just how it comes across. Straight from Intel's
>> webpage:
> [ ... ]
>> Since the 12.x wireless driver package, the possibility of "spoofing"
>> the MAC address was blocked to prevent this type of practice."
>
>> Objekt
>
> Interesting. I work rather intimately with Intel wireless adapters, on
> a daily or weekly basis, and had not noticed that the MAC-spoofing feature
> had gone missing.
>
> With older adapters such as the 3945 or 4965, you should be able to load
> up the 11.5 driver and spoof away (assuming that you're running XP.)
> The 130 adapter isn't supported with any driver prior to 14.0, however.
>
> Aaron

The good news is that I have been able to conduct my proposed testing
with the Atheros AR5007EG wireless NIC on a netbook. Changing the MAC
address doesn't "take" while running Windows XP, even though the drivers
do offer the option. Running Ubuntu 10.04, however, I can put in
totally made-up or real-world MACs.

The way my router reacted was interesting, to say the least.

It's odd that the cheaper, older, more bargain-basement NIC on a netbook
proved more capable than the "new and improved" NIC on a mid-priced
notebook, but there you are.

Objekt