Re: [CM1000] Are MAC Addresses guaranteed to be unique?

forkrul · ‎2019-01-23

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.

antinode · ‎2019-01-23

> [...] 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

View solution in original post

antinode · ‎2019-01-23

> [...] 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 · ‎2019-01-23

New? Used? Other?

New

I know nothing, but:

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

Huh. That exactly describes my issue.

forkrul · ‎2019-01-23

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.