[tulip] multiple virtual ethernet adapters

Andres Meyer andres.meyer@computer.org
Sat Jun 15 09:02:01 2002


The problem:
My cable provider allows for 4 DHCP addresses on a bridged interface. They
are assigned per MAC address,
so I need 4 MAC addresses with 4 dhcpcd clients running.
I would like to have all these connections come to one box so I can then
do what I want (like using 1 as masq for the private net, another one for
direct forwarding to one private address etc).
I know that it would be possible with 4 ethernet adapters, but I dont have
the room (or the money) for them.

Any ideas?

HW: DEC21040 Ethernet Adapter, DEC Alpha 21164 PC164 machine

I tried with using the linux bridge to form a "virtual bridge" with
the real
NIC and 4 dummy[0123] NICs, assigning separate MACs to the dummy NICs,
then running dhcpcd on the dummy interfaces. Naturally, it did not work, as I
think that you are not supposed to have IPs on bridge interfaces.

I saw a comment about adding MAC addresses to the dev->mc_list in the
driver code, but did not fully understand if that would allow for
something like eth0:[0123] or eth[0123] or if it just lets pass the
packets through the HW filter and nothing else.

Any comments appreciated,
A. Meyer