Windows 10 Random Hardware Address Issue

[WarrenHolt]

I ran into an interesting issue with my granddaughters school laptop. It is running Windows 10 and the Wifi settings allow a different Hardware address (MAC) to be set. I had put a calendar in her profile to see if all access could be blocked, and it could. But by the time I got around to changing the times of the calendar and grant her access again, her computer was no longer connected. She kept trying to get it to connect and it continued to fail. I had her power it off and back on but it still did not connect. When I finally started to analyze what was going on, I find there were two Wifi connections to the pcWRT router (same SSID). I chose one and authenticated it and all was well, on her side at least.

I logged into my pcWRT router and accessed the Status – Connected Devices page and found an “unknown” device (grayed more than the others) with the IP I had previously assigned to her school laptop, but with a different MAC address. I clicked the “unknown” Host name to enter a new Host name and when I did, the previous Host name I used for her computer pops up. So I choose the same Host name and set it to the Same IP and different MAC.

Now I went to Settings – Network and looked at the Host names and Static Leases and find – two of the identical Host names (the one I just set on the Status page), each with the same IP, but each with their own MAC.

Then I went to Apps – Access Control and look at the Profile that controls that device. It already has the Host name I just set in Settings – Connected Devices as a Device. When I hit Devices – Add, there is no second Host name as there was in Settings – Network – Static Leases.

So, the first question is: will BOTH Host names, having different MAC addresses, be acted on by the single Device selection of the Profile? If not, how am I going to know what Device MAC address is being used by the Profile?

Just to see what would happen, I also removed the Host name from the Devices list, selected Devices – Add, found a single Host name entry, and added that.

But I am still unsure if BOTH MAC addresses for the one device will be examined and under control of the Profile or if I should remove that Device from all the settings everywhere then redo everything. I am tempted to do this anyway but wanted to bring this issue to your attention in case it has happened to anyone else and they don’t know about it (or they do and don’t know the answer to my question, like me).

[support]

You can assign multiple MAC addresses to one computer (i.e., map multiple MAC addresses to one name).

For example, the computer may have a WiFi adapter and an Ethernet adapter. You can map both to the same name and same IP address. As a result, no matter how the computer is connected, it appears as the same user in Access Control.

[koningskruid]

Laptop (linux) uses wifi device with setting randomization during scanning is yes. That should not be changed as in public spaces you definitely want this.
Connecting in home network the pcwrt sees during scanning phase a randomized MC adress and concludes it is a new device, and assigns some IP. That is not want should happen as this laptop should get the pre-configured “static lease” IP.
On the laptop side this can not be solved, so it should be solved imho in pcwrt. Pcwrt should recognize scanning phase and onlt thereafter assign IP.

[koningskruid]

Solved
I found another setting that determines mac randomazation after a specific ssid is connected. For home network on linux set for that ssid 802-11-wireless.cloned-mac-address to permanent, that solves the problem while still in scanning phase randomazations occurs.

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