the_reverend said

ark said

so, i have a motorola modem with a modified firmware that allows you to flash a different mac address and serial# directly onto the hardware. using a list of known good mac addresses that are connected to ISP, i flash the modem with one of those, and as soon as it enters the analog lines, there is no difference to the ISP where the signal is coming from, as long as the frequency matches. essentially my modem becomes a valid modem that charter recognizes. i've only paid a basic cable fee ($20/mo) for almost 6 years just so i can get a digital cable line into the house.

if i use a mac address that ISP doesn't recognize, a webpage pops up belonging to the ISP that asks me for my account number and mac address. as long as i have one that's already validated by ISP, no worries and free 30 mbit internet.

http://haxorware.com/

I know all about mac authentication and NAC-type security. I work at a networking company and work with those protocols intimately.

Anyhow, that does nothing to protect you from CAS since they can track you down based on your ip if they really wanted to. MACs are L2 so when you switch or route, those go away (FBD tables). Any way, the fact that the cable company doesn't screen for that is hilarious. At some point those MACs will probably go bad if the account they are attached to goes away.