diff --git a/doc/README.enetaddr b/doc/README.enetaddr
index 2d8e24f..1eaeaf9 100644
--- a/doc/README.enetaddr
+++ b/doc/README.enetaddr
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ Correct flow of setting up the MAC address (summarized):
 
 1. Read from hardware in initialize() function
 2. Read from environment in net/eth.c after initialize()
-3. Give priority to the value in the environment if a conflict
+3. The environment variable will be compared to the driver initialized
+   struct eth_device->enetaddr. If they differ, a warning is printed, and the
+   environment variable will be used unchanged.
+   If the environment variable is not set, it will be initialized from
+   eth_device->enetaddr, and a warning will be printed.
 4. Program the address into hardware if the following conditions are met:
 	a) The relevant driver has a 'write_addr' function
 	b) The user hasn't set an 'ethmacskip' environment variable
diff --git a/net/eth.c b/net/eth.c
index d526264..6290b33 100644
--- a/net/eth.c
+++ b/net/eth.c
@@ -62,6 +62,15 @@ int eth_getenv_enetaddr_by_index(const char *base_name, int index,
 	return eth_getenv_enetaddr(enetvar, enetaddr);
 }
 
+int eth_setenv_enetaddr_by_index(const char *base_name, int index,
+				 uchar *enetaddr)
+{
+	char enetvar[32];
+	sprintf(enetvar, index ? "%s%daddr" : "%saddr", base_name, index);
+	return eth_setenv_enetaddr(enetvar, enetaddr);
+}
+
+
 static int eth_mac_skip(int index)
 {
 	char enetvar[15];
@@ -205,6 +214,11 @@ int eth_write_hwaddr(struct eth_device *dev, const char *base_name,
 		}
 
 		memcpy(dev->enetaddr, env_enetaddr, 6);
+	} else if (is_valid_ether_addr(dev->enetaddr)) {
+		eth_setenv_enetaddr_by_index(base_name, eth_number,
+					     dev->enetaddr);
+		printf("\nWarning: %s using MAC address from net device\n",
+			dev->name);
 	}
 
 	if (dev->write_hwaddr &&