Solved Surface docks and MAC address issues

[MrWasabi]

Hi All,
I work in a hotdesk type of environment where at the end of the day, everyone packs their desk and the next day they sit somewhere else.
There is a static dock, screen and keyboard on every desk, and all that changes is the surface on the dock.
To cut a long story short, i am experiencing an issue with all my Surface Pro 3's running W8.1 where i am getting duplicate MAC addresses on multiple devices (Ethernet MAC). Took a while to figure out how this was happening but this is how we managed to replicate the issue.

A user will shut down their surface at the end of the day while still docked (we will call this dock A), they will not remove it from the dock A until it has completely shut down. They will go home and come back the next day and sit in a different location (dock B) and dock their surface and then start it up.

When windows starts, and i do an "ipconfig /all" dock B ethernet adapter MAC address will be the same as dock A. Now this isnt so much of a problem (IP wise) until someone comes in and sits at dock A, then we have duplicate MAC addresses and different IP's.
The only way i have found to fix this is to start the surface undocked, or re-dock then it will lose its ethernet adapter and when docking again, it will aquire the correct MAC address.

I have tried to search for similar cases but i dont think there are many companies out there running W8.1 on surfaces doing activity based working...

Anyway i would welcome any suggestions or ideas you may have.

 

[GreyFox7]

Just wondering if doing an ipconfig Release/Renew has any effect?
Or disable the adapter and reenable?
If either worked you might get to a scripted workaround.
Sounds like a case for Microsoft

 

[Audiojunk]

Hi mrWasabi,

We have the same issue with the duplicate mac addresses. Our users are sitting everyday on a different desk. Our workaround is to disable and enable the ethernet adapter. I hope that there is a solution for this because it's very annoying.

 

[GreyFox7]

Hi mrWasabi,

We have the same issue with the duplicate mac addresses. Our users are sitting everyday on a different desk. Our workaround is to disable and enable the ethernet adapter. I hope that there is a solution for this because it's very annoying.

So do you see specific unique events triggered when the user starts up docked? looking for a key to enable an automated workaround.

 

[Audiojunk]

It takes a very long time to logon to the domain because there is a duplicate IP on the network. The other user with that same IP loses his network connectivity. An other problem is, you do not know which mac address belongs to which docking station. So we have to reset 2 adapters.

 

[leeshor]

I assume you're connected via CAT5 or similar. Try disconnecting the network cable for 10 seconds to see if the dock resets. Or maybe a power down and back up of the dock.

 

[GreyFox7]

What I'm suggesting is a script that can reset the adapter.

 

[MrWasabi]

Audiojunk, I was beginning to believe i was alone with this issue as i havent seen anything else posted that is similar to this issue.
GreyFox: So far all i have tried to removing the Surface from the dock and docking it again, this gets windows to requery the hardware and picks up the new mac address, after that, its like there was never a problem. I suspect disabling the adapter could work, but releasing the IP and renewing it didnt resolve the issue for me, even after clearing the DHCP entry from the server.

I dont see anything while starting up, my users will start up fine, log in just fine (and quickly). The issues I see are dropped packets, constantly, 60-70% dropped, to the point where doing any work becomes impossible.

Leeshor, tried that initially, but doing that doesnt remove the ethernet adapter from windows so it retains the same duplicated MAC address.
I suspect this may be a case for MS, but thought id try my luck in the forums first. Thank you all for your input so far

 

[GreyFox7]

I don't have an MS dock so cant try to reproduce it but if disabling the adapter works we have a starting point for a workaround until MS fixes it.

 

[Audiojunk]

Hi,

It's been a while but I've found a solution. Turn off Fast Startup in Power Options.
We pushed this setting with a GPO and the problem is gone...