[X4U] MAC address vs ³ Ethernet Address ²

[Richard Gilmore]

Hi all, 

I ran into a bit of weirdness while setting up a new faculty member¹s 20²
iMac G5 with Tiger. All the machines have to be authorized with the IT
department here according to MAC address as a security protocol. In all the
other Macs here the MAC address under the system profiler in Network matches
the, ³Ethernet Address² number in the Network tab under System Preferences
except in this one new machine. So this machine has not been able to gain
access to the internet nor our LAN. As far as I know the MAC address and the
³Ethernet Address² should be the same identical number??? I¹ve told IT here
about this but haven¹t heard back yet. But does this represent a security
hazard? The IT guys here are super paranoid and I¹m not sure they will allow
this machine to join our network because of this. It seems to be a screwup
from Apple and if this is indeed sloppy production it looks very very bad.
The IT department here is all pro M$ and any excuse they can find to run
Apple into the ground is the last thing we need around here. When budget
renewal comes around they¹ve got one more bit of ammo to try and run the
Macs out of the building. Now they¹re going say they are a security threat
because they can¹t be relied upon to have something as simple as an accurate
MAC address and they¹ll start telling the higher up money people not to
waste money on these poorly made machines etc....I can just hear them now.

What does the collective wisdom know about this issue?

Should this machine get returned and exchanged for one that has matching
addresses? 

Is it a Tiger issue? All the other machines are Panther and the system prefs
in Tiger are a little different?

Or can the MAC address listed in the system profiler be made to match the
³Ethernet Address²? Should it?

How does one discover the true MAC address of the machine?

Thanx much

Richard 


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