What does MAC address stand for?

Written by Johan, published at Nov. 10, 2020, 2:22 p.m.

MAC address is a unique identifier for a physical network interface. MAC stands for Media Access Control, and are used in ethernet networks.

To be able to send traffic on an ethernet network, you must know the MAC address of the destination. This can be achieved using ARP in IPv4 networks.


Find your routers MAC address

Written by Johan, published at Oct. 1, 2020, 10:10 a.m.

You can translate the MAC address of your router to find out the vendor of the router. This trick works in your home, on any public WiFi and at your office for example.

To find out the MAC address of your router, you can simply use the ARP protocol. ARP is used to translates MAC addresses to IP addresses.

The command is the same for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, but the output may differ. Just type in "arp -a" in your terminal. This will list all known MAC/IP combinations known by your computer.


netlookup@netlookup ~ % arp -a
? (10.5.1.1) at 88:5c:47:12:ca:40 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.5.1.125) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.5.1.144) at 8:62:66:15:52:62 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.5.1.222) at a6:56:9b:6b:b6:8 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (10.5.1.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en0 ifscope [ethernet]

If this case, 10.5.1.1 is the gateway, and the MAC address 88:5c:47:12:ca:40 can be translated to Alcatel Lucent using our search tool on the front page.

If there is no record for your gateway, you can simply try to ping the gateway, and if you get an response, the MAC address will show up using "arp -a" command.


How to find MAC address on Android

Written by Johan, published at June 24, 2020, 1:10 p.m.

To find your MAC address on an Android phone or tablet, go to the settings menu.
Select the "Network & Internet" option and then click on "Wi-Fi".
Click on the gear icon next to the Wi-Fi network you are connected to.
Under "Advanced" you'll see the device MAC-address under "Network details".


Convert MAC address to device name

Written by Johan, published at Sept. 28, 2019, 10:55 a.m.

If you want to convert mac address to device name, you can use our search engine on the front page.
Every MAC address contains information about the vendor, so with the MAC address, you can find out the manufacturer of the given MAC address.
MAC address is not assigned to a device name on the LAN, but the vendor can be translated from the MAC address.


What does a MAC address look like?

Written by Johan, published at Sept. 24, 2019, 10:42 a.m.

A MAC address is an address that is used in local networks and is used for communication between devices. If device A wants to send traffic to device B, device A uses devices B's MAC address.
MAC addresses can be displayed in different formats, but the most common format on Netlookup.se is 00:16:cb:a4:bd:ca. In this case, the first 6 characters are assigned to Apple, Inc. and that means if a device are using this MAC address, it is probably an Apple device.

If you want to find out the vendor for a MAC address, you can use the search engine on the front page.

Here is an example of the same MAC address with different formatting.

00:16:cb:a4:bd:ca
00-16-cb-a4-bd-ca
0016.cba4.bdca


Find MAC address on Mac OS X

Written by Johan, published at June 26, 2019, 3:13 p.m.

The esiest way to find your MAC address on OS X is to open the "Terminal" application via "Spotlight Search" (looking glass at top right).
Then type the following command and press enter.

ifconfig en0
The MAC address is shown after "ether". If you have multiple interfaces, you can just type ifconfig without "en0", and all interfaces on your computer will show.


Nintendo switch MAC address

Written by Johan, published at June 20, 2019, 9:53 a.m.

To find the MAC address on a Nintendo Switch console, follow these simple steps.

  • Click on "System Settings" on the main screen.
  • Select Internet on the left hand side
  • The MAC address is shown under "System MAC Address"

You can find all MAC addresses that belongs to Nintendo here and here.


Find MAC address on iPhone

Written by Johan, published at June 19, 2019, 3:06 p.m.

To find the MAC address on your iPhone, go to "Settings", then "General", then "About".
Scroll down until you see a setting called "WiFi address". This address is the MAC address of your iPhone.


MAC address spoofing in OS X

Written by Johan, published at June 17, 2019, 5:35 p.m.

MAC address spoofing is a method to change the hardware address of a Network Interface Controller (NIC).
A MAC address is only exposed to the LAN segment and is never visible for users outside of your local network, but users on your LAN can see your MAC address, and by using tools like netlookup.se, MAC addresses can be traced back to a specific manufacturer.
In some cases, you might want not to tell the devices on your LAN what kind of hardware you are running, or maybe your MAC address has been blocked by the gateway.
Use the following steps to change your MAC address. To change the MAC address, you need to be the administrator of the system.

Step 1 - Find your NIC

Open the "Terminal" application by using Spotlight Search (looking glass in top right corner).
Type ifconfig and press enter.
A list of all NICs on the computer are shown. Determine what interface you are going to use. en0 is typically your main network interface in OS X.

Step 2 - Change your MAC address

In the "Terminal" application, type the following.
sudo ifconfig en0 ether 30:e3:d6:01:d2:f1
Change the MAC address after ether to the MAC address you want to change to.
After you press enter, you will be prompted with a password, enter your user password to gain administrative privileges.
The new MAC address will be used until the next reboot.

Make sure that you do not use the same MAC address that someone else is using on the LAN, in that case, the network will have a hard time to determine where the traffic should be sent.


How to find MAC address on Amazon Fire TV Stick

Written by Johan, published at June 14, 2019, 5:22 p.m.

It's easy to find the MAC address of your Amazon Fire TV stick.

When you are at the home screen, press "Menu" and then select "Settings".
Go to "About" and then "Network".
The MAC Address, along with other network information, is displayed to your right.


Find Google Home MAC address

Written by Johan, published at June 12, 2019, 2:42 p.m.

In some cases, it can be useful to know the MAC address of your Google Home device. This is achieved by using the Google Home app on your phone.
It's two different scenarios explained; either your device is connected to your account, or not. Both scenarios are explained below.

Google Home device is linked to your account

If the device is linked to your account, open the Google Home app and click on the menu.
Click "Devices" and then click on the dots on the upper right and select "Settings".
You then find the MAC address under "Information".

Google Home device is not linked to your account

If the device hasn't been linked to your account, open the Google Home app and turn on your Google Home device.
When the device has started, you should see the device in Google Home.
Click on "SET UP" and continue until you get to "Connect to Wi-Fi". In this view, you can click on the dots in the upper left corner and select "Show MAC address".



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