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MAC Address Problem

Getting any tablet shouldn't involve this kind of drama. No matter if it is or is not rooted, or if there is or is not a hardware issue you shouldn't be having this kind of hassle. I'd put it aside for now and wait for a response from Amazon.
 
After several more hours of research over the past few days, I've discovered that Android developers came up with the brilliant notion, starting somewhere version 5 or so, to run with randomized MAC addresses. The first three pairs of digits remain the same each time, but on each reboot or wi-fi restart, a random set of digits is generated for the last three pairs. While I appreciate their efforts to further protect my privacy, I'm profoundly distressed by the fact that I cannot use my tablet for work, as registration is required. In particular, I am running Android 6.0.1. Does anyone have any notion as to whether or not I can create a MAC address that will remain constant?
 
BenWyles said:
After several more hours of research over the past few days, I've discovered that Android developers came up with the brilliant notion, starting somewhere version 5 or so, to run with randomized MAC addresses. The first three pairs of digits remain the same each time, but on each reboot or wi-fi restart, a random set of digits is generated for the last three pairs. While I appreciate their efforts to further protect my privacy, I'm profoundly distressed by the fact that I cannot use my tablet for work, as registration is required. In particular, I am running Android 6.0.1. Does anyone have any notion as to whether or not I can create a MAC address that will remain constant?
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But that's NOT correct Android device behaviour though, and is indeed very undesirable if you must register the device's MAC address with network admin. There's definitely a serious problem with this tablet if it's MAC address does keep on changing with every reboot. Take it up with Amazon, you very likely can't do anything else with the thing. Changing a MAC address doesn't help with your privacy AFAIK, because it's only known to the local WiFi network.

As I stated earlier, the only Android I've ever had where the MAC address changed, was a phone with a custom CyanogenMod ROM.
 
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I'm trying now to contact somebody with the developers to find out if I can make it static, but so far the only responses I'm getting are wondering why I'm not in favor of it being random. I'm seriously considering scrapping the whole thing and moving completely away from Android if this is how things are done now.
 
BenWyles said:
I'm trying now to contact somebody with the developers to find out if I can make it static, but so far the only responses I'm getting are wondering why I'm not in favor of it being random. I'm seriously considering scrapping the whole thing and moving completely away from Android if this is how things are done now.
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Evidently it's how things are done with cheapo no-name tablet from Amazon. These things can often be fluky, buggy, flawed, and many other quality issues. If you had a Samsung Tab or smething else quality, it wouldn't be a problem.
 
mikedt said:
Evidently it's how things are done with cheapo no-name tablet from Amazon. These things can often be fluky, buggy, flawed, and many other quality issues. If you had a Samsung Tab or smething else quality, it wouldn't be a problem.
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That's not helpful Mike, and what do you base that statement on anyway?
Apparently it's a security feature introduced by Google into Android, to stop device tracking.
Do you know for sure that tablets produced by Samsung don't do exactly the same thing?
The failing here is that the device doesn't provide an option to turn off MAC address randomization, and stick with a static address.
 
LV426 said:
That's not helpful Mike, and what do you base that statement on anyway?
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I've got a couple of phones here with 6.0.1, and they always have a fixed MAC address, and in fact I've just been doing some rebooting of them, and turning WiFi on and off, and the MACs never changed. And I can't see any settings in them for MAC randomization.

LV426 said:
Apparently it's a security feature introduced by Google into Android, to stop device tracking.
Do you know for sure that tablets produced by Samsung don't do exactly the same thing?
Click to expand...

I'll be checking myself in the next few days, when I next get to a Samsung store. :D

LV426 said:
The failing here is that the device doesn't provide an option to turn off MAC address randomization, and stick with a static address.
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So it's something that the tablet's manufacturer needs to rectify, possibly with an OTA update?
 
Ok thanks for the clarification Mike. So it looks like Samsung have made a few mods to Android, and chosen to remove that feature.
Unfortunately doesn't help the OP to resolve the problem, and my web searches have not been very fruitful on a solution.
 
If its a samung tablet theirs always an option to reflash the os and it will reflash the baseband as new
 
Cyberdev said:
If its a samung tablet theirs always an option to reflash the os and it will reflash the baseband as new
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The OP already indicated this is a Npole NT101 tablet, with a major fault in that its networking stack makes it unsuitable for use in a corporate or small business environment.
 
svim said:
The OP already indicated this is a Npole NT101 tablet, with a major fault in that its networking stack makes it unsuitable for use in a corporate or small business environment.
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And unlikely to be fixed, given the response from them. Unfortunate but I think the OP will need to get another device.
 
LV426 said:
And unlikely to be fixed, given the response from them. Unfortunate but I think the OP will need to get another device.
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I tend to agree, it's looking like a real uphill battle to get this tablet straightened out. If it was implemented as an opt-in/opt-out feature, having a rotating MAC address could be useful, but making it fixed is really short-sided. The decision to do this was obviously focusing only on one security aspect, while ignoring all the other issues involved with networking and connectivity.

Taking into consideration this was purchased through Amazon I don't know if in a situation like this it's their responsibility to take it back but considering Npole made the bone-headed decision to make networking in this table limited only to casual consumer usage I think there's a really good argument to be made they're marketing their product without proper documentation on its limitations. Write Npole directly detailing the situation that this model is inappropriate for business situations. npoleservice@gmail.com
 
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