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How to find MAC address of 'invisible' hardware?
Shades:
Since the introduction of Windows Vista the networking software was completely rewritten by Microsoft (in previous versions of Windows they were 'borrowing' that kind of code from BSD). Therefore this code will be included in Win7 as well.
Having first hand experience with setting up a wireless network using Vista (without SP1) I can tell you that I was (very) badly impressed with the stability of the wireless connection, while my own laptop (XP) was running fine in the same network.
To me it appears that the new network software is not only more extensive but also more 'sensitive' than the old software, although I hear that Win7 has improved in that field.
Now I don't have a clue how your router has been setup, but when setting up my ex-girlfriend network I enabled the WPA, limited the amount of DHCP users able to connect to this router to the absolute minimum (in her case 1) and enabled the MAC address filtering.
Mac filtering is not that useful because it takes hardly any effort to find software that will change this for you. Come to think of it, maybe that kind of software is able to help you getting rid of it (in the case of a false entry) or at least point you in the right direction. Here are some links SMAC, MACmakeup, Technitium MAC Address Changer or see here how to do it manually.
Stoic Joker:
Not to be a pest but this is troubling me:
High Tech Computer Corp makes Smart Phone/PDA/mobile computer devices.
Win7 is more agressive (then any prior version of Windows) about connecting to ^^that ^^ type of device.
That type of device is not going to play well with typical network scanners that test for protocols it doesn't use.
Some folks setup their widgets (badly) to romp about & connect to anything it can find.
To me, the above seems to fit your issue.
barney:
Shades: Thanks for the idea on the MAC filtering software ... hadn't thought to use that to kinda reverse engineer the problem. I don't do any MAC filtering on the router ... never seen it to be useful as a deterrent - if I can get around it, so can many, many others.
Stoic Joker: Yeah, that's been kinda bothering me, too. Using a [TMobile]G1 with the Android OS. I set it specifically to connect to the router's SSID and - I think! - alert me if other WiFi spots exist. It is the most likely candidate to have created this situation. However, on the chance that the G1 created this contretemps, I disabled the WiFi connectivity, then turned the phone off for a day ... still got the error prompt with the phone off. That leads me to believe, still, that there's a record somewhere in Win7 that gets scanned every so often. Unfortunately, the periodicity of the scan is not regular.
I'm partially basing that belief on a problem XP had with the router ... at one point, XP had three different records for the router - it would suddenly re-recognize it and give it a new designation/record. However, that may have been due to the Comodo firewall, not the OS. Didn't have time to research it, and it did not seem to cause any problems. Still on my to-do list when I get back to XP <sigh />. There are times when I really miss MS DOS.
Stoic Joker:
I don't recall seeing anything about the expanded environment...but can "we" rule out the neighbors equipment?
Also have you tried changing the Win7 machine's 192.168.1.100 to (say...) 192.168.1.99 to confirm or disprove that the Win7 machine is indeed conflicting with itself. I'm working on the assumption that if it truly is a LM issue then any IP assigned to it should automatically conflict when it creates its "shadow".
barney:
I alluded to the wireless stuff briefly. I'm as protected as I can be, considering the equipment. WEP activated with a strong password, and I'm alerted when anyone tries to access the wireless area. IP access is limited, if I can believe the router, to three full time connections and up to three - now four - ephemeral connections. That will grow, but I'm keeping it as tight as I can.
After digging around on the G1 for a while - just upgraded the software - I found that the phone is, indeed, the MAC address source. Information not on the Web site, not in the book. It's in the phone, but an area I don't remember seeing before ... think it showed up after the update.
The problem now becomes that of identifying a record and, if possible, changing it. Well, same problem as I started. Comforting to know there's a source ... I remember ghost machines on a DEC LAN back with Win98/98SE that drove us crazy.
Anyway, I'm still hunting for that record somewhere in Win7. Surely I'll find it sooner or later <sigh />.
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