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ADCS Home > Online Guides > DHCP > Finding Your Hardware Address

Finding the Hardware Address for DHCP

A hardware address, or "MAC address", is a unique address encoded directly in the ethernet adapter of your computer. Your hardware address does not change even when the IP address of your system changes. For security reasons, the hardware address is used in a registration process to identify your system on the network. Only registered computers will be able to take advantage of DHCP service.

Windows XP

  1. Click on the Start menu, and select Control Panel.
    (You may need to choose Settings before Control Panel, depending on your Start Menu configuration.)
  2. Double click on Network and Internet Connections.
    (Skip this step if you do not see this Control Panel item.)
  3. Double click on Network Connections.
  4. Double click on Local Area Connection.
  5. Click on the Support tab and then click on the Details button.
  6. The Hardware Address is labeled Physical Address.

Alternate Method:

  1. Click on the Start menu, and select Run....
  2. Enter cmd into the Run box.
  3. Enter ipconfig /all in the black window that appears.
  4. Look for Physical Address in the text that is returned. You may need to resize the window taller to see all the information.

Back to DHCP Guide.

Windows 2000

  1. Select the Start menu, and the Run... option.
  2. Type winmsd; Click OK.
  3. Open Components, Network, then Adapter.
  4. From the right hand side of the window locate your network adapter. The Hardware Address is labeled MAC Address under the adapter.

Back to DHCP Guide.

Windows 95,98, or Windows ME

  1. Select the Start menu, and the Run... option.
  2. Type winipcfg; Click OK.
  3. Make sure the adapter type in the white drop-box is set to your ethernet adapter (not PPP or Dial-Up adapter).
  4. The Adapter Address is your Hardware Address (or MAC Address).

Back to DHCP Guide.

Windows NT

  1. Select the Start menu, and the Run... option.
  2. Type winmsd; Click OK.
  3. Click on the Network tab.
  4. Click on the Transports button.

Back to DHCP Guide.

Macintosh

Your Mac must be using Open Transport and have the AppleTalk and TCP/IP control panels. If not, your Mac is running with classic networking, and you will need to upgrade your networking software.

To find your hardware address:

  1. Select the Apple Menu, choose the Control Panels option, and the TCP/IP control panel.
  2. Select the File menu and the Get Info command.
  3. Your Hardware Address is listed in this window.

Back to DHCP Guide.

Mac OS X

All necessary software is part of the Mac OS X default installation. You should not need to make additional installs.

To find your hardware address:

  1. Go to the the Apple Menu and choose System Preferences.
  2. In System Preferences, open Network.
  3. From the Show drop-down menu near the top, choose Built-in Ethernet (or another device whose Ethernet address you wish to find).
  4. Select the Ethernet tab.
  5. Your Ethernet address will be shown in the Ethernet ID field.

Back to DHCP Guide.

Linux

Most modern Linux distributions will automatically detect and install drivers for common network adapters. Consult the documentation of your distribution and your network adapter for installation help. Note that Linux distributions (Red Hat, SuSE, Ubuntu, etc.) can vary in implementation, and that the example provided here may differ from your own Linux-based system.

To find your hardware address:

  1. Open a command shell. If you are using a graphical environment such as KDE or GNOME, then look in the dock, taskbar, or program menus for Xterm, Shell, Terminal, Command Prompt, or a similar item. If your computer leaves you with a text screen after starting up, you probably already have a command shell.
  2. Type /sbin/ifconfig at the shell prompt, then press Enter or Return. In the example screenshot below, the shell prompt is user@host$ and the command to type is highlighted.
    Note: If you see an error message to the effect of "permission denied," then try one of the following commands instead:
    • sudo /sbin/ifconfig
      If prompted for a password, enter the password for your computer login account.
    • su -c "/sbin/ifconfig"
      If prompted for a password, enter the password for the computer's "root" user.
  3. You should see a network adapter listing that is similar to the example below, with adapter device names in the leftmost column. Most Linux distributions call the first Ethernet network adapter eth0, and subsequent adapters eth1, eth2, etc. You will find the hardware address listed after HWaddr. The loopback adapter, lo, can be ignored because it is not a physical network device.
  4. Type exit and press Enter or Return to close the command shell.

Back to DHCP Guide.

This document was last modified on Wednesday, 02-Jan-2008 09:42:50 CST
The URL of this document is http://www1.umn.edu/adcs/network/hardwareaddress.html