Re: [LUG] MAC address on Android

On 13 January 2014 11:35, George Parker <georgeparker20@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I can't allocate a fixed IP to my [Android] devices as the MAC seems to be the only way to do this.

There again, I maybe don't need to do this with my Android devices as I don't think I can use NFS on them.

Probably not with vanilla Android. However, Android does allow you to set a fixed IP address on the device itself. Settings > Wireless & networks > Wi-Fi settings > Advanced. The last step is the tricky one, with very bad UI design offering zero affordance (it's hidden). You have to press the Menu button to see it. That should see you right regardless of MAC impermanence. Of course, you then have to remember to drill down and turn off fixed IP whenever you want your device to connect to any Wi-Fi access point other than your own.

If only we all used AppleTalk's Name Binding Protocol instead of DHCP. As so often, they took the too-smart-to-do-it-right hardcore geek user-hostile wisdom and proved it wrong... What you do, see, is you broadcast a special packet to your LAN segment saying "This is my address, OK?" and if anyone says "No, it's not OK, that one's already taken", you try again with a new address. Instead of centralizing a la DHCP, do it peer-to-peer. No config, any and all machines capable of forming a stable network without user intervention. Addresses are cached and re-used across disconnects so networks with no new members effectively "settle" into "fixed" addresses even if some of the nodes are only connected intermittently. More important, the user never needs to know that their machine even has a network address other than its human-readable/configurable name.

Apple even re-engineered it for TCP/IP as zeroconf/bonjour/rendezvous. But no, we have to keep using this *rubbish* DHCP tech because ICANN. :-)

--
Phil Hudson http://hudson-it.no-ip.biz
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