How to determine your MAC Address

A Media Access Control address (MAC address) is an identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the network. As noted elsewhere in the User Guide, the MAC address of each and every network device is completely unique. DHCP uses this unique information in order to provide networking information to your device.

The text below describes how to Obtain MAC addresses in Linux, Mac, Windows.

Linux

On Linux systems, the ethernet device is typically called eth0. In order to find the MAC address of the ethernet device, you must first become root, through the use of su. Then, type ifconfig -a and look up the relevant info. For example:

# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:60:08:C4:99:AA
          inet addr:131.225.84.67  Bcast:131.225.87.255  Mask:255.255.248.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:15647904 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
          TX packets:69559 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0x300

The MAC address is the HWaddr listed on the first line. In the case of this machine, it is 00:60:08:C4:99:AA.

Mac OS X

Open ‘System Preferences’ (usually found in the Dock) and select Network. Pick a location and select the ‘Advanced’ button:

The ‘Advanced’ button will take you to this screen:

You then need to select the Ethernet button which will take you to the following screen:

This will now give you the MAC address, which in this case is: 00:25:00:ed:a9:e1.

Windows (XP, Vista, 7)

Choose Control Panel from the Start menu, and then open the Control Panel’s Network and Sharing Center. Click the link labeled ‘View Status’ by the connection you want to examine.

Click the Details button. A Network Connection Details dialog box appears. Locate the item labeled Physical Address, which is the MAC Address number.