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How to Find the MAC Address on a Device

How to Find the MAC Address on a Device

Overview

This article explains how to locate the MAC address on different devices.

A Media Access Control (MAC) Address can be referred to as an Adapter Address, Physical Address, or Hardware Address. This address is a unique identification number assigned to each network interface controller (NIC) during manufacture.

The method used to locate a MAC Address differs depending on the operating system being used.

Table of Contents

Windows 11

  1. Click the Start Menu icon.

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  2. Search for "cmd" and open the Command Prompt program.

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  3. In the window that appears, type "getmac /v" and press Enter.

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  4. The MAC Address of your network interface controller (NIC) will display in the Physical Address column. The MAC Address is 12 alphanumeric long.

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Mac OS X

  1. Click the Apple icon and select System Preferences.

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  2. Within the System Preferences pane, select Network.

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  3. Choose the connection type you typically use to connect to the USF network and click Advanced. (In this example we were using Wi-Fi to connect to the USF network.)

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  4. The MAC Address of the selected connection type will display on the Hardware tab. The MAC Address is 12 alphanumeric long.

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 Linux

  1. Open Terminal.

  2. Type "ifconfig -a" and press Enter.

  3. The MAC Address of any network interface controller (NIC) should appear in the output of the respective connection type. 

  • Typically Ethernet Controllers are denoted as eth# and Wireless as wlan#.

  • Depending on your flavor of Linux, the MAC Address may display as ether or HWaddr.

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