XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.comp.microsoft.windows, alt.c   
   mp.os.windows-11   
   From: address@is.invalid   
      
   Char,   
      
   > It helps greatly if a MAC address is unique within its local   
   > network segment,   
      
   I would say that!   
      
   Examples of 'puters who could not communicate over the LAN because either   
   their ethernet-cards MAC was already present, or they had a hard-set IP that   
   clashed are aplenty.   
      
   > but a duplicate MAC appearing somewhere else shouldn't cause   
   > any problems.   
      
   As long as it would not be a duplicate there, you would be correct. :-)   
      
   There are a few problems with your suggestion though : it only works for   
   devices that do not move around, which would make Arlens statement that he   
   can track anyone a bit of a joke.   
      
   If they hoever *do* move around (hello smartphones!) there is a rather good   
   chance that they will, sometimes, enter a network segment where their BSSID   
   is alread present - which could lead to a denial of service for one, or even   
   all of the devices being copies of each other.   
      
   > *Many years ago,   
   ...   
   > it didn't cause any problems. It simply moved certain   
   > tasks farther up the network stack   
      
   I think it did a bit more.  Like negotiating which server would handle the   
   request, and how to mark it that a certain ethernet packet was part of an   
   ongoing conversation with a specific server.   
      
   iow, all those servers would need to /activily work together/ so they would   
   not yell over each other and try to hijack each others conversations.   
      
   You know, it does sound odd : that sofware (that was bought) would need to   
   add markers to make sure ongoing conversations would go to the server which   
   first serviced it, in effect duplicating what the ethernet MAC and the   
   puters IP are for ...   
      
   Regards,   
   Rudy Wieser   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)