How to Find Your Ethernet Address
Every Ethernet adapter has a unique identifier, commonly called the Ethernet address or MAC (Media Access Control) address. The address is a twelve-digit hexadecimal number which may appear as a single string or as six two-digit pairs separated by a colin or hyphen, e.g. 000393eb345c, 00:03:93:eb:34:5c or 00-03-93-eb-34-5c. The Ethernet address is not the same thing as your IP number, and it is a property of your network adapater, not your computer (e.g. a given computer will have two Ethernet addresses if it has both a wired and wireless network adapater).
The instructions below cover the most common laptop operating systems and assume that your laptop has two network adapaters, one wired and one wireless. On most systems, the first network device will be your wired card and the second your wireless card.
Microsoft Windows
- open a command prompt (click Start, Run and enter COMMAND in Windows 95 and 98; click Start, Run and enter CMD in Windows NT, 2000, and XP).
- enter
IPCONFIG /ALL - look for the value for "Physical Address" (e.g. 00-03-93-eb-34-5c)
Mac OS X
- open a Terminal window
- for your physical (wired) network port, enter
ifconfig en0 | grep "ether" - for your wireless card, enter
ifconfig en1 | grep "ether"
Linux
- open a command shell
- for your physical (wired) network port, enter
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | grep -i "hwaddr" - for your wireless card, enter
/sbin/ifconfig eth1 | grep -i "hwaddr"
