Re: Wi-Fi broken on Dell E6520, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN, Debian 11.7 Xfce

[Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com>]

On Thu, 4 May 2023 21:08:07 -0700
David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:

> A further problem -- Debian

Well, it isn't really Debian, it's Network Manager.

> is changing the MAC address of the Wi-Fi 
> adapter ("MAC address spoofing", a security "feature") to MAC
> addresses

This is a security feature for road warriors. Many access points (APs)
track users by MAC address, and use that data to feed ads, and
otherwise be rude. So if you are using public APs, feel free to use
random MAC addresses.

> that my networking equipment (Ubiquiti Networks UniFi)
> detects as invalid:
> 
>      "This field must be a valid MAC address"

On your home or work network you may have good reason to use the
manufacturer's MAC address. For example, your DCP server may assign
host name, IP address and other features based on MAC address. So you
should use the permanent address on known networks.

> 
> 
> The solution was to change the Wi-Fi settings in Debian:

Right. You can also do it via the command line, using nmcli. Which
makes it easy to script.

https://fedoramagazine.org/randomize-mac-address-nm/

-- 
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