How To Find Your MAC Address

June 27, 2008

The Media Access Control address or MAC address, which may also be known as the Ethernet Hardware Address, functions similarly to an IP address in terms of identification; however it is an address that is attached to network adapters. Knowing your MAC address is important for communication between two different computers or network components.

To find your MAC address in Windows, open the Command Prompt. This can be found under the Accessories selection or you can run it from the RUN option of the Start Menu. In the Run option, type command and press Enter. When you are in the command prompt environment, type ipconfig /all. If you are using Windows XP, you can use the command getmac. The MAC address is a series of six groups of two digits, letters, and numbers that are separated by dashes and is shown under Physical Address. An easier way to find your MAC address is to open Network Connections, and right clicking on Status of your Local Area Connection. In the Support tab, clicking on Details will give you a lot of information and your MAC address is listed in the Network Connection Details as the Physical Address.

If you are operating on Linux, you can use the ifconfig command and you may need to refer to your /bin or /sbin directories. If you are a Mac user, finding your MAC address can be done through Network from the System Preferences in the Apple Menu. Your MAC address is your Airport ID or Ethernet ID.

Nowadays, it is possible to change your MAC address if your hardware does allow it. This is called MAC address spoofing and is not really advisable to do unless it is really necessary since it tends to confuse the router.

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