Mac Address Logging / Banning

[#01]

Is it possible for somebody to make a hack that would Log Mac Addresses and put it in the same area where the IP is shown?

Or is there a reason why this has never been made before? I would think this would be a more secure way to ban people. Especially ones who have a different IP all of the time.

I also want to ask... in the case of 56kers... Do they pass their mac addresses on the net? Or is their mac address hidden by a proxy? Do proxys hide mac addresses?

I would really like to have this feature built into my forum. If someone can do this... or has allready made a hack like this... can you email me at... c@2si.us (This is the email I check most often)

Thanks!!!

[filburt1]

Coincidently we just talked about this at WDF: http://www.webdesignforums.net/thread5957.html , the consensus being that the only way would be via a Windows server and even then relatively unclean.

[#01]

Thanks for the quick reply! And thanks for pointing me at an earlier thread on the subject. I'd really like to have the code working on a Unix server though.

Hopefully sombody can help me.

Thanks again!

[Logician]

MAC address are NOT used in the internet. They are for local networks..

Besides how can you assume that one has such an address? There are millions of internet users without an ethernet card and connected to the internet. Since ethernet card is not a requirement to connect to internet, NICs are not used in the TCP/IP communication either. The only requirement of a TCP/IP protocol is to use an IP address and this is the only information you can get from an internet user in most of the cases.

In NO cases you can get his NIC number on the internet unless he is a local user or he is using some sort of "weird" software that is intentionally posting this information. (I dont know such software either)

[lucky64]

Sorry to bump this....but is this kind of thing still not feasable? Even if you have their modem/CMTS [pole] mac addresses?

[bada_bing]

Originally Posted by Logician

MAC address are NOT used in the internet. They are for local networks..

Besides how can you assume that one has such an address? There are millions of internet users without an ethernet card and connected to the internet. Since ethernet card is not a requirement to connect to internet, NICs are not used in the TCP/IP communication either. The only requirement of a TCP/IP protocol is to use an IP address and this is the only information you can get from an internet user in most of the cases.

In NO cases you can get his NIC number on the internet unless he is a local user or he is using some sort of "weird" software that is intentionally posting this information. (I dont know such software either)

What are you talking about? Everyone that is connected to the internet besides dial up users need a NIC card so that their IP address can bind to it. There is no other way myfriend. For every NIC card there is a unique MAC address assigned to it unless they are doing MAC Address spoofing. Most people today are accessing the internet using a broadband connection rather it be DSL,cable modem or Wireless.
All devices are required to have there IP bound to a NIC card.

Now some of the issues are NAT if a user is behind a NAT device such as a Router/ Firewall then the typical IP Address of that user will be the external IP address if that device and not the NAT address on the other side of the router/Firewall.. Hope I didnt confuse anyone..

Now the only way I coule think of accessing the actual users IP Address and the MAC address is to use activeX controls and access there credential that way. So the hack would have to be able to activate some activex controls on the PC that is logged into your forum, so the exchange would happen durin the login process...

[Logician]

Originally Posted by bada_bing

What are you talking about? Everyone that is connected to the internet besides dial up users need a NIC card so that their IP address can bind to it. There is no other way myfriend.

As you mentioned dial up users dont have it. Also people who connects to internet via a non nic connection (eg. ADSL users whose modem is connected to their computers via USB or firewire) don't have it.

But this is really irrelevant. Even if you connect to internet via a NIC card, your MAC address is NEVER passed into your internet communication. Internet connection is done via TCP/IP packages and this package's header only includes your IP address (which is the address you use in the internet, NOT in your local network) so the webserver you connect to can never reach your MAC address.

So even if site visitor have a NIC card & MAC address, it is impossible to create a hack that will allow/disallow access to vbulletin by checking MAC address. Because your computer does not send its MAC address info into your internet traffic.

If you believe you can create such a hack, please do so and believe me you'll make a big revolution.