public boolean isPermanent() throws UnknownHostException {
        checkNodeStatusData();
        return isPermanent;
    }

/** 
 * Retrieves the MAC address of the remote network interface. Samba returns all zeros.
 *
 * @return the MAC address as an array of six bytes
 * @throws UnknownHostException if the host cannot be resolved to
 * determine the MAC address.
 */