torkell | (no subject)

Okay, here's a good one: why does a wireless-to-ethernet bridge authenticate using the mac address of whatever computer was first plugged into it?

Dramatis Personnae
Bridge: a Netgear WGE101 802.11g to ethernet bridge.
Desktop: a random collection of parts that has been mangled and shuffled over the course of 3 years. Considering renaming it to "Igor".
Laptop: a nice laptop with butil-in ethernet and a DWL-610 802.11b wireless card.
Access point: a Netgear WGE602 802.11g access point, rigged with mac filtering and encryption.
Switch: a generic 5-port 10/100 ethernet switch.

Also full host of Cat5 cables, kettle leads, and an 8-way surge protector made by Belkin.

Rough sequence of events, carried out over the course of a week:

Plug in bridge and config it from Igor. At this point the mac address for desktop and bridge are in the access point's allowed list.
Bridge warbles happily away at access point and spews out packets into the ether. So far so good.
Point and drool at internet from desktop.
Point and drool at internet from laptop. The laptop's mac address is *not* in the allowed list.
After about a week, reboot bridge by virtue of hitting the off button on the extension cable. Why Belkin had to make it a hair trigger, I shall never know.
Bridge comes up, but flashing lights on bridge tell me it's not talking to the wireless anymore.
Plug laptop into bridge (thru generic 5-port switch) and tinker with settings. Bridge can see access point in the list of SSIDs.
Feed bridge passphrase and reboot it (through web interface). No joy.
Pound head for a moment, then remember wireless PC Card.
Log into access point config with laptop, look at settings and find that the wired mac address of the laptop is "Disconnected".
Add that address to allowed list and apply (no reboot needed). Bridge still flashes lights at me.
Re-enter passphrase into bridge (using wired connectoin on laptop), reboot the thing and it comes up sweet as pie.
Ponder for a moment, before deciding that mac address lists and bridges Don't Work.