[opensource-dev] Third party viewer policy

[Scott McCulley]

Argent,

 From a network standpoint, the mac address is a layer two address  
that is not seen when crossing a router to a new network. So, therer  
is no way to see your mac address from the network packets. LL is  
using the mac address as a unique identifier of your computer. When  
you use the SL viewer, it can read your mac address locally, then send  
it along to LL to be used to identify you on the grid. So if you have  
multiple accounts that you use from the same computer, they know it is  
you, no matter what your IP address, proxy server, or other network  
layer protection is used.

In the case of known griefers, LL could simply disable access from  
that mac address that is reported by the viewer, and the person cannot  
get back in to the grid, regardless of IP or SL account. The only way  
is to use a completely new computer with a different mac address.

That being said, if the developers mask the ability to read and report  
the mac address to the LL grid, they lose the abilit to block the bad  
guys.

-Scott


Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 24, 2010, at 5:49 AM, Argent Stonecutter  
<secret.argent at gmail.com> wrote:

> Admittedly this is not likely to be a common scenario, but the whole
> idea that a MAC address is a unique identifier for a device is based
> on a deep-seated confusion about the network stack.