Question - is "auto eth1" the right thing to do I guess I can answer my own question - if you don't have the "auto" then the "pre-up" to configure the MAC never gets invoked.... I tried this suggestion, and unfortunately it doesn't fix anything. Eth1 did indeed get pre-configured with the right DECnet MAC before Charon started, but it made no difference. I did notice this additional symptom, though - [On the Charon-AXP-nce emulated OVMS system] $ mcr ncp show act cir count ... Circuit = EWA-0 ... 12 Unrecognized frame destination ... That looks like an Ethernet MAC problem, but I've no idea what's causing it. Bob