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Finding MAC Addresses

MAC address refers to the media access control address, which is a unique number assigned to a network interface. It is also know as Ethernet address or hardware address.

These are 48 bit numbers which are written as six groups of two hexadecimal digits, separated by colons (:). (eg EA:69:95:FC:B5:A1)

Linux

$ > sudo /sbin/ifconfig

look for the section for the primary interface device for your system, typically eth0, but may be something else, but not lo which is the loopback interface. The output should look like ..

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr E0:69:95:FC:B5:A1 inet addr:142.103.236.10 Bcast:142.103.236.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::e269:95ff:fefc:b5a1/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:124070455 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:131102939 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:1035023860 (987.0 MiB) TX bytes:870674850 (830.3 MiB) Interrupt:20 Memory:fe200000-fe220000

The MAC address is labeled HWaddr

Apple Mac OS 10.8

  • From the Apple in the upper left hand corner choose System Preferences
  • Click on the Network icon
  • Select Ethernet
  • Click on the Advanced button
  • Click on the Hardware tab

Your MAC address will be at the top of this window. Older versions of the OS will be similar, but the details may vary

Windows

the Mac address can be found by drilling down in the Network Control Panel. The details will varying with the version of Windows.

Windows 7

  1. Click the Start button, search for network connections, then choose View network connections in the result
  2. Right click on Local Area Connection, choose Status
  3. Click on details button in the middle of the pop up window
  4. Looking for Physical Address

Windows 8

  1. Move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen, then click on Search
  2. On search windows, choose Settings first, and then search for network connections, then choose View network connections in the result
  3. Right click on Local Area Connection, choose Status
  4. Click on details button in the middle of the pop up window
  5. Looking for Physical Address

Windows XP

  1. Open Control Panel, then open Network Connections
  2. Right click on Local Area Connection, choose Status
  3. Click on details button in the middle of the pop up window
  4. Looking for Physical Address

Alternately, one can use a command window... Click the Start button. In the Search box, type Command Prompt, and then, in the list of results, double-click Command Prompt. In the command window, type ipconfig /all , find the Physical Address under the Ethernet Adapter section.

On Windows 8 or any Windows system with a Windows key on the keyboard, you can press the Windows key and the r key at the same time, to bring up the Run window, then type in cmd, and then hit enter. In the command window, type ipconfig /all , find the Physical Address under the Ethernet Adapter section.