6 I210 NICs with same MAC address... Please help

[Toxic]

Hello,

Sorry, wrong channel, I will repost in a more appropriate, it's not an intel core issue... intel 210

I'm usually a normal general customer, tech-savvy, but general public.

I have a i5-8365U computer with 6 integrated I210 NICs, but somehow at the factory they made a mistake when programming the NICs and they all have the same MAC address ! You can imagine the hassle when trying to use more than one NIC at a time.. The chinese seller is not responding anymore, and now I'm stuck with trying to re-write the MAC address.

I see that I would need nvmupdate for i210 and that is usually reserved for priviledged accounts...

Maybe you have another way to help me ?

Or do I need to register for a priviledged account and try to guess at what the settings should be ?

I already found sometime ago an unofficial version of nvmupdate that I was able to run because I had "NVM checksum is invalid" issues, but that's not the proper route I think, maybe you can help me find some random 6 MAC adressses and the tooling to be able to assign them to my NICs...

Here is a comy of ipconfig in windows to clearly see that all MACs are the same :

C:\delme\nvmupdate_700Series\700Series\Winx64>ipconfig /all

Configuration IP de Windows

   Nom de l’hôte . . . . . . . . . . : pandora
   Suffixe DNS principal . . . . . . :
   Type de noeud. . . . . . . . . .  : Hybride
   Routage IP activé . . . . . . . . : Non
   Proxy WINS activé . . . . . . . . : Non
   Liste de recherche du suffixe DNS.: lan

Carte Ethernet Ethernet 2 :

   Statut du média. . . . . . . . . . . . : Média déconnecté
   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . :
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui

Carte Ethernet Ethernet 3 :

   Statut du média. . . . . . . . . . . . : Média déconnecté
   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . :
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection #3
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui

Carte Ethernet Ethernet 4 :

   Statut du média. . . . . . . . . . . . : Média déconnecté
   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . : lan
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection #4
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui

Carte Ethernet Ethernet 5 :

   Statut du média. . . . . . . . . . . . : Média déconnecté
   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . :
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection #5
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui

Carte Ethernet Ethernet 6 :

   Statut du média. . . . . . . . . . . . : Média déconnecté
   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . :
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection #6
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui

Carte Ethernet Ethernet :

   Suffixe DNS propre à la connexion. . . : lan
   Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection #2
   Adresse physique . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-C9-00-00-00
   DHCP activé. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Oui
   Configuration automatique activée. . . : Oui
   Adresse IPv4. . . . . . . . . . . . . .: xxxxxxxxxxx(préféré)
   Masque de sous-réseau. . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Bail obtenu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . : lundi 22 mars 2021 02:21:47
   Bail expirant. . . . . . . . . . . . . : lundi 22 mars 2021 04:21:46
   Passerelle par défaut. . . . . . . . . : xxxxxxxx
   Serveur DHCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . : xxxx
   Serveurs DNS. . .  . . . . . . . . . . : xxxxx
   NetBIOS sur Tcpip. . . . . . . . . . . : Activé

[CarlosAM_INTEL]

Hello, @Toxic:

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

We want to address the following questions to understand the reported situation:

 Could you please let us know if the affected design has been developed by you or by a third-party company? Could you please provide the manufacturer name, part number, and where we can find all the information on this third-party device? Could you please list the source used to design your affected design? 

Could you please let us know the Operating Systems related to the reported situation?

We are waiting for your answer to these questions.

Best regards,

@CarlosAM_INTEL.

[Toxic]

---

@CarlosAM_INTEL wrote:

 Could you please let us know if the affected design has been developed by you or by a third-party company?

Definitely a "third party company" ! I'm your average joe, not designing or building boards

---

@CarlosAM_INTEL wrote:
Could you please provide the manufacturer name, part number, and where we can find all the information on this third-party device?

I guess "noname" is the closest thing... I got the device from aliexpresse, it's this one :

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4001183180654.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.5b305b2cwZvEAE

Could you please list the source used to design your affected design? 

Sadly, I have no informatin on this, sorry

Could you please let us know the Operating Systems related to the reported situation?

I'm using Windows 10 Pro

I encounter the same issue with linux (Ubuntu 20.04).

I don't know the hardware detail, but somehow the OS queries each NIC for it's MAC address, and my 6 NICs have been somehow mssconfigured to report the same MAC...

Hope this can help you help me, sorry I can't be of more help, I do feel I'm a simple consumer in a forum dedicated to hardware designers... Bu when it's firmware issues like this I don't know where to turn to with the seller not responding...

[Toxic]

I was able to get this if running nvmupdatew64 :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DeviceInventory lang="en">
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="1" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="2" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="3" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="4" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="5" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
	<Instance vendor="8086" device="1533" subdevice="0" subvendor="0" bus="6" dev="0" func="0" port_id="Port 1 of 1" display="Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection">
		<Module type="NVM" version="800005CF" display="" update="0">
		</Module>
		<MACAddresses>
			<MAC address="00A0C9000000">
			</MAC>
		</MACAddresses>
	</Instance>
</DeviceInventory>

[CarlosAM_INTEL · Accepted solution]

Hello, @Toxic:

Thanks for your reply.

You should address your consultations of the affected device as a reference through the channels listed on the following website:

http://www.cnxcy.com.cn/contactinfo.html?spm=a2700.shop_index.88.70

Your Ubuntu consultations should be addressed through the channels listed on the following website:

https://ubuntu.com/support

Best regards,

@CarlosAM_INTEL.

[Toxic]

I understand that this is the proper way.

But after several messages, I am still a bit disappointed that there isn't a way to just get a tool to rewrite that MAC address, I'm pretty sure that is possible and even if I understand an I210 NIC can be customized by the manufacturer, I feel that with most instances of I210 in the wild, a tool able to rewrite the MAC is quite likely gonna be working on more than 80% of them... I'd be willing to give it a shot, I'd even be willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement or whatever, but it seems you're not willing to share the tool or give a shot at helping the end customers that come here because of poor support of your resellers...

You're still happy to sell them chips, but not help support... better to send me waiting months waiting for them and hoping that they understand my problem, which I doubt, seeing the broken english with which theiy respond at the break-neck pace of one message per week...

I have no contract with Intel, that's the game, I understand it, just a bit disappointed nonetheless...

[CarlosAM_INTEL]

Hello, @Toxic:

Thanks for your reply.

We can provide general information that should be validated by the manufacturer of the affected devices.

You can find the information that may help you in the answer to questions 2.14, 2.15, 2.23, and 2.25, on pages 8, and 9 of the Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I210/I211 Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs] document # 335346. You can find it when you are logged into your Resource & Design Center (RDC) privileged account on the following website:

https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/335346

The Intel(R) Network Connections Tools PV LAN Software Tools document # 348742 has the EEUpdate and LanConf tools, which are the ones that may help you. You need to be logged into your Resource & Design Center (RDC) privileged account to find it on the following websites:

https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/348742

The RDC Account Support form is the channel to process your account update process or report any problems with the provided sites. You should fill out the form stated on the following website:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/forms/support/my-intel-sign-on-support.html

We suggest you use a business email address to evade any inconvenience. Please avoid the free email provider's address (such as the provided by Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, or others).

Best regards,

@CarlosAM_INTEL.

[Toxic]

Thank you Carlos for these informations.