Question Change Mac Address

[Azndude263]

Equipment: Arris SB8200 Modem
Netgear Nightawk Pro Gaming XR500 Router (using DUMA OS)
Cox Gigablast Internet Service (1gb service)

Long story so please bear with me. I need a way to change my public IP address very so often (about once a month) because of an online game that I play. The game is old school and because of my 4K resolution monitor the game crashes for me often and tries to reconnect itself. But because of the constant re-connections the server sometimes timeout my IP address (I'm assuming) for a period of time thinking I am flooding it or something. Using a VPN seems to temporarily fix the issue so I think it's the IP address issue but I don't want to use a VPN because sometimes it is unstable and sometimes I have problems using TeamView to connect to my PC from my phone so VPN is my last resort.

The easiest way is to call the internet provider (Cox) and ask them to assign me a new IP but I don't think they are willing to do so, let alone do it often for me (if someone has Cox and know they are willing, please let me know). I googled around and found that by changing the MAC address of the router, I will get a new public IP address (I don't exactly know how it works). I tried to do so and it worked. From main menu, I clicked Settings ===> Internet Setup ===> Router MAC Address (please see attached picture). Everything is checked to something along the line of "Default or Automatically From ISP) except for the Router Mac Address. I checked "Use This Mac Address" instead of "Use Default Address" and simply changed the last number from 9 to 8 to keep a similar pattern (compared to the default mac address). Once finished, I clicked "Apply" and rebooted the router. It worked and I got a new IP address and everything went smoothly for about 30 minutes until my internet crashed and went down.

I tried rebooting both the router and modem and didn't work. So I then tried to set the MAC setting back to the way it was by clicking "use Default Address", clicked "Apply" and rebooted the router again and same problem. I then tried to reboot the modem again after changing the Mac address back to default but still same problem. I then factory reset the router and went through the wifi setup and that didn't help. Then I used a toothpick and pressed the factory reset button on the modem I think and that didn't do anything. I practically tried everything from resetting the modem, router and rebooting them several times. Last resort was I went to the local Cox store and got their modem, then went back home and activated the modem by calling their support line. Once activated, I plugged my router back in, rebooted the new modem and the router and everything went back online.

Long story short, does any know of a easy or better way to getting a new public IP address other than using a VPN? If the MAC changing is the easiest way and it was actually quite easy to do so (simply changing 1 number) but then something went wrong along the line and internet went down. Is it because I did something wrong? What is the exact procedure to change the MAC address of the router? Change Mac address, reboot router then reboot modem? Is it the other way around and I reboot modem first? Unplug the everything before changing? Please help me with step by step. Also if there is a better way, please let me know because I am scared to try again and don't want to purchase new modem every time.

PS: I connect my PC to the router via Ethernet Cable

https://ibb.co/dQvSwkT

 

[bill001g]

If it works you can just change the mac address in the router and reboot the modem to pick it up. That trick does not work on all ISP. My cable provider uses the mac address of the modem it appears and assigns the same ip no matter what mac address it attached.

I would still use the VPN. The key is to use one that allows you to configure only certain traffic to go via the vpn. You would set it so only your game uses the vpn and all the rest of the traffic runs normally. I currently use PIA and it has been really stable it will stay up for weeks at a time. I am sure the other large VPN providers are also very stable. I run the vpn on my router so you would have to check their client software out to see if it can do what you need.

The only gotcha with a vpn is many sites detect the vpn and refuse to function or spam you with captcha garbage. As long as the game company does not care that you use vpn it should not be a issue. Some game companies prevent it because vpn is used to bypass region locks.

 

[Azndude263]

How do you just route the game through VPN? I thought using VPN means your entire connection gets routed. I have a VPN service over at Torguard. I want to keep VPN as my last resort

I did manage to change my IP through my changing my MAC as stated above but then I lost service. Did I do something wrong?

 

[bill001g]

It depends on how the ISP works. Many times the modem will assign the ip to the first mac address it sees. If you change the mac the modem still has the old one. This is why you must reboot the modem. It will generally lock to the new mac address. Now what IP is assigned is hard to say. In some cases it is luck and what is free on the dhcp server and how it allocates ip addresses.

Many vpn have the ability to route certain ip addresses to the vpn and others bypass. Sorta depends if you want most your traffic running vpn and a couple sites...like netflix to bypass since it does not support vpn or if you want most your traffic to bypass and a couple sites use the vpn.

This is a read the documentation question since it is done differently in many clients. What they are generally doing is issue ROUTE commands behind the gui. You can put in the route commands yourself if you really want. Look at the ROUTE PRINT and see how it changes when the vpn is active. It tends to be simpler to use the GUI in the client but the route command method works if you are willing to spend the time to learn the command.