NVRAM and Un-Activation

[Mindwaave]

Hey guys, I successfully changed the WiFi MAC address of my 3GS (on 3.1.3) by running the following command and rebooting:

nvram wifiaddr=yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy

After I rebooted, my iPhone became unactivated and was stuck at the lockscreen with the Connect to iTunes picture and "Slide for Emergency" in the slider. I was able to fix this by SSHing from my computer and running "nvram -d wifiaddr" and then rebooting, but I am still confused as to why adding a value to the NVRAM affected the activation and prevented me from running 3rd party apps until I synced again. Anyone have any ideas/thoughts about this?

[slayoxus]

Idk why change the wifi Mac address for what purpose?

[Mindwaave]

Changing the MAC address is useful for either bypassing wireless router security or TESTING wireless router security (which I am doing in my home).