RE: MAC Address

I must admit that I didn't think about a proxy or a firewall changing
the MAC address in the packet.  Maybe I should take a step back and
explain a little more of the picture.

I have RF devices that connect to an RPG socket program.  The program
monitors an ERP database file for records to send to the handheld.  The
ERP has a naming convention that is uses for processing, and I need to
be sure that the device that connects receives only the records that
were intended for it.  I am also writing the client/device piece so I
had been retrieving the MAC address with the client program and sending
it to the RPG program for a match.  The problem with that is if I
support 5 platforms, I need to write the MAC retrieval piece 5 times, so
I wondered about putting the logic back on the server in the RPG
program.  So I guess my options are:

1) Use IP address and require that all connecting devices have static
IPs
2) Write the MAC retrieval portion of code for all the different client
platforms and send it as text to the socket program.
3) Some RPG scheme that hasn't been introduced yet.......

Thanks in advance,                      
Andy Holmer

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Duzenbury [mailto:rduz-midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 11:55 AM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: MAC Address

At 10:18 AM 11/20/03, you wrote:
>Is there any way to tell the MAC address of the client that is
connected
>to my RPG program?  I need to be able to determine if that client has
>connected previously and I can't use the IP address because of DHCP.  I
>am open to other suggestions as well.
>
>

Hmm.  I don't know the answer, but it seems that a MAC address won't be
a 
necessarily unique identifier.  What if someone connects through a
gateway 
or proxy?  Your program will see the gateways MAC address, not the 
end-users.  What if the user has to change their network card?  What if
the 
user connects from a home PC or work PC?

The only way to know if a user is connected again is to record their
user 
id.  You will have to set up a user id /password mechanism for the most 
accurate results.

Regards,
Rich 

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