MAC Address of VPN Client Keeps Changing

Barry

6/1/24, 3:51 PM

We have a desktop using Windows 10 at a remote location, and that pc has a printer connected to it. We use the Windows 10 VPN client to connect to the router of the local office (peplink 20) and once connected, the remote pc can access the local network. More importantly, we need the local users to be able to print to the printer which is connected to the remote pc. We can do that by adding it using the ip address assigned to the remote pc when it connects via VPN.

The issue is, the ip address keeps changing. I tried binding it to the MAC address, however it seems the MAC address changes as well. The remote pc is connected through wifi (tp link AX1800), so i double checked that the "random hardware addresses" is set to off. I cannot ensure a static ip unless the actual MAC (or a static MAC) is passed to the local DHCP. what else can change the visible MAC?

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Nikita Kipriyanov

6/1/24, 6:10 PM

Which VPN? I mean, *almost always* VPN is not an Ethernet and it actually doesn't have a MAC address; sometimes it's faked so to *look* like a virtual Ethernet interface when actually it is not. It is strange to use DHCP to assign addresses to VPN peers; usually VPN's internal facilities used for that.

Barry

6/1/24, 6:51 PM

I am using the VPN client that comes with Windows 10. Is there a way to configure it with that client or is it better to use a different product?

Nikita Kipriyanov

6/2/24, 6:10 AM

Nice, which protocol exactly? L2TP, PPTP, SSTP? None if these could possibly work with MAC addresses. What exactly do you see, how did you know that it has MAC address, that it changes, that IP is assigned using DHCP (I'd expect IPIP in all three cases, as all of them use PPP under the hood)?

Barry

6/2/24, 4:20 PM

I am connecting with L2TP/IPsec. I see the connection (meaning the MAC and ip) in the local router and I assumed the DHCP was assigning the ip address. I am able to bind a ip address to a MAC address, however, every time it would connect, a different MAC shows up....

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Server

Barry

6/2/24, 4:23 PM

I bound the MAC to a specific ip in the remote router. That seems to have done the trick. Now the ip in the local router remains static.

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DubStep

6/2/24, 6:49 PM

This is the answer. I was about to answer that the VPN connection is a virtual adapter that starts and stops each time you start and stop the VPN connection. It will be a new MAC address every time, but routers, since they are actual devices, have static MAC addresses (unless you change it in the config) from network adapter provided by the manufacture.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: MAC Address of VPN Client Keeps Changing

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