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forkrul's avatar
forkrul
Aspirant
Jan 24, 2019
Solved

[CM1000] Are MAC Addresses guaranteed to be unique?

I'm also contacting support through traditional channels, but I wanted to see if I could get a more informative response through this:

I have a CM1000 modem that I recently bought; while it seems to function fine, when attempting to activate with Comcast, they claim that the Mac address for my modem is actively in use by another household in a completely different part of the country.

 

Given that I both have the modem in hand and I bought it new, this seems unlikely if the Mac address of the modem is truly unique.

 

While I am currently more suspicious of Comcast's book-keeping than of a lack of uniqueness in the Mac addresses of Netgear modems, I am nevertheless curious whether there is any guarantee from Netgear that the Mac address on a particular device will be globally unique.

  • > [...] CM1000 modem that I recently bought; [...]

     

       New?  Used?  Other?

     

    > [...] while it seems to function fine, when attempting to activate
    > with Comcast, they claim that the [MAC] address for my modem is
    > actively in use by another household in a completely different part of
    > the country. [...]

     

       I know nothing, but:

     

          https://community.netgear.com/t5/x/x/m-p/1664467

3 Replies

  • > [...] CM1000 modem that I recently bought; [...]

     

       New?  Used?  Other?

     

    > [...] while it seems to function fine, when attempting to activate
    > with Comcast, they claim that the [MAC] address for my modem is
    > actively in use by another household in a completely different part of
    > the country. [...]

     

       I know nothing, but:

     

          https://community.netgear.com/t5/x/x/m-p/1664467

      • forkrul's avatar
        forkrul
        Aspirant

        Called Netgear support and they are going to send me a new modem. Great on Netgear support; a bit disappointed that I had to do this in the first place, and Comcast support was manifestly unhelpful, but Netgear has handled as well as could be expected.