How to Find Your MAC Address

How to find your computer's MAC address

IP addresses are assigned by a match to a unique identifier in each computer, called MAC address, Physical address, hardware address, or ethernet address. In order to assign an IP address for your computer, we need this identifier. Here's how to find it on the most common operating systems.

On a Windows machine

  1. Go to Start->Run and type in cmd. (In Windows 10 and 11 you can type "cmd" in the "Search the web and Windows" box)
  2. In the black screen (command prompt window) that pops up, type ipconfig /all.
  3. Your computer should then list a bunch of information, including "Physical Address: ..... 00-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx". This is your MAC address.

On a Mac with OSX

  1. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu at the top left of your screen.
  2. Click Network from the System Preferences menu.
  3. Choose Wi-Fi from the list of interfaces on the left and click the Advanced button.
  4. Choose the Hardware tab under which you will see the mac address 

On a Linux Machine

  1. Open up a Terminal or Command Shell screen.
  2. Enter the command su -c /sbin/ifconfig from your root directory.
  3. The MAC should be listed under your ethernet device (probably eth0) next to HWaddr.

If you have more than one choice, be sure you don't give us the wireless address, as that talks to a different network and won't get an IP address that works when you use the network cable.