I notice that Parallels sets a default value for the mac address of the "virtual" network card in the guest OS (but also lets me set it). How is this value determined, and how can we be sure to avoid conflicts? With a "real" network adapter, the manufacturers all supposedly have ranges of addresses and never use the same one twice. I know the odds of a conflict are low, but if many people on the same subnet start using Parallels, how does we avoid duplicate mac addresses? (From a very encouraged beta users who views this software as one of the milestone accomplishments of personal computing.)
The MAC address is a 48-bit number. I think that's about 280 million-million possible combinations. Those are pretty low odds.
