Good!

Is the powerup default FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF?

Yes.

This is good news indeed! A little more testing would be useful to make sure it stays on differrent setups/revisions though.

@Devia: Did you make a test program already?

Uhm.. if you mean the Does-MAC-Stay-After-Reset code, yes.. but it was a quick hack of some larger program.. I'll see if I can strip it down to something cleaner tonight and upload a small PRG for people to test with.
If you mean test proggy for the unsolicited ARP Reply thingie, no. That requires a bit more work.. hmm.. but should actually not be that hard. I already have ARP, IP, ICMP and a handicapped TCP implemented, only problem is, that I wrote it in 2004 and can't remember shit about it, so I'll have to decode it first. But I suspect modding the ARP part should be fairly manageble

I was thinking of the MAC-Memory thing first hand.

..but yes, investigating the unsolicited ARP injection would be interesting too ofcourse, but less needed if the MAC memory proves stable enough.

Although I previously said "Yes" to this.. the answer is also No... fucking weird..

I have 2 RR-Net, both CS8900A Revision D, but one has default MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00 and the other FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

que?!?

I have made a little test program called ShowMAC and put it in the Upload section.
- found some weird load error in Retro Replay ROM while doing it, but I guess I'll start another thred about that

Coolness! Good job Devia!

People, please try this program and report back whether your RR-net MAC address stays in memory after reset and power off (for how long?). Try as many different C= setups as possible.

Download: http://rrforum.ath.cx/viewtopic.php?t=194

Thank You for cooperating!

Hmm... that unsolicited ARP Reply idea of mine turned out to work perfectly! - at least with Windows. Further testing with Linux needs to be done, but I suspect it will work on that too.

What I do is that I simply generate an ARP Reply packet with the following important parameters:

Ethernet Destination: Broadcast (FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF)
Ethernet Source: Your RR-Net's MAC address
ARP OpCode: REPLY
ARP Senders Hardware Address: Your RR-Net's MAC address
ARP Senders Protocol Address: Your RR-Net's IP address
ARP Targets Hardware Address: Broadcast (FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF)
ARP Targets Protocol Address: The broadcast IP address of your LAN

- I trust you can fill in the rest of the fields

Sending this packet IMMEDIATELY updates my WinXP's ARP table with the MAC/IP pair I set in the packet's Senders fields, replacing any existing entry for that IP (it does not create a new entry, it only updates any existing one). This results in XP being able to communicate with my RR-Net code immediately, eventhough the MAC has changed.

hehe.. RR-Net coding is getting fun again

Cool. Have you tried it on a switched network though, or just on a hub?

I still think this should be avoided if possible though - if there is a reusable mac address, use that. If you set a new one, broadcast just in case.

Exactly what I was thinking.. and yes, switched network.

Sweet! I'll try this with the next release of GuruTerm (whenever that is)

Mine also powers up with FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF as the MAC. You don't even have to run ShowMac to get it - I just run WarpCopy and it tells me what MAC it's using.

Since I leave my Retro Replay disabled, it never programs a MAC into the RR-Net on powerup.

As you might imagine, running WarpCopy with FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF as the MAC causes a few problems

Can someone write a short program that does nothing but set the MAC address? That would be really handy if the program you're using (i.e. WarpCopy) assumes the MAC is already set. Or I can put one together if there's enough interest.

I sort of already did that when writing ShowMAC. I have just made a SetMAC version and uploaded it here: http://rrforum.ath.cx/viewtopic.php?t=207

Let me know if it is of use to you.

Sweet!