MAC addresses

A MAC address is a unique number assigned to network cards by the manufacturer. Every hardware network card comes with its own MAC address. MAC addresses have the format 00:0F:A7:B5:57:7E. The Physics Network will only allow computers with known MAC addresses to communicate.

How to Obtain Your MAC Address

Note: all of these commands will return multiple results if you should have multiple network cards installed (e.g. if you have a wireless network card in your laptop). The first result listed should generally be the correct one for registration.

Under Windows

  • Open your command line.
  • Type in:

    ipconfig /all
     
  • You will receive a multi-line output which will contain the line

    Physical Address . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
     
  • The Physical address value is your MAC address.

Under Linux/macOS

  • Open up your command line.
  • Type in

    /sbin/ifconfig -a
     
  • You will receive a multi-line output which will contain the lines

    eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx inet addr:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Bcast:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Mask:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
  • The value following HWaddr is your MAC address.

Categories: Laptops | Network