What is a MAC address?
A MAC address is a physical address assigned by the manufacturer of your network interface. It is a unique identifier – you will never find a second hardware with the same address in the whole world unless it has been modified by the end-user which is very unlikely since it is physically stored in the device read-only memory.
All peripheral devices capable of accessing a network (LAN, WAN, Bluetooth, etc.) have a physical (MAC) address. It can be your computer, smartphones, tablets and even your game console such as Nintendo 3DS or PS4.
This address is a 12-digit hexadecimal string and looks something like this:
Why you need to know your MAC address?
You might be asking yourself why in the world do you need to know your MAC address? Well, there are a few situations when this information can be helpful, for example, if you want to allow network access to only certain device, you might want to white-list those devices by MAC address on your router. This way when you connect your device to your network, your router will cross-check the MAC address with the white-list before allowing it to access your network.
Another example is that you might want to know more information about your network card(s). You can find your Mac Address and then look it up online on sites like
www.coffer.com/mac_find to find out which company manufactured it.
Find MAC address on different Operating System:
Now let’s see how you can find the MAC address on different platforms.
- Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 7
- Mac OS x Mavericks
- Linux Ubuntu and CentOS
- iPhone and iPad
- PlayStation 4
Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 7
Method 1: Using the Network Sharing Center
- Right-Click on the Computer Network icon from your tray icon and choose
Open Network and Sharing Center.
- You should see your active network connection details. Click next to the label
- On the new window click on
details. You should now see your network connection details. Your MAC address is next to the label
- Open your Command Prompt Window by pressing Win Key +R, type
- Type the following command
getmac /v /fo listin your Command Promp window.
Method 2: Using Command Prompt
In case you are struggling to follow the first method, there’s another way to check your Mac Address via the command line. Here’s how:
Both methods should work for previous Windows version including Windows 7, Vista and XP.
Mac OS X Mavericks
If you are using Apple’s Mac OS, follow the instruction below on how you can find your Physical address.
Method 1: Using System Preferences
- Click on the Apple icon on the top left corner of your screen and select
- Once the system preferences screen is open, click on
- You should now see a list of your connection type available through your MAC. If you are connected via WIFI or an Ethernet cable, you should see it in that list. Select the appropriate connection type and click on the Advanced button.
- On the new window, select the
Hardwaretab. You should find your MAC Address there.
Method 2: Using Terminal
For the power users, you might want to check your MAC Address using the terminal. Type
ifconfig and press Enter.
You should see a list of network interfaces associated with your Mac computer. Your MAC address is next to the label
On systems with both an Ethernet and Wifi connection,
en0 will represent your ethernet connection and
en1 will be your Wireless interface.
On systems with only a wireless connection, in this case you can locate your MAC address just below
Linux: Ubuntu and CentOS
In case you get an access denied error, type
sudo ifconfig -a and type your password when prompted.
iPhone / iPad (iOS)
Whether you got an iPhone or an iPad, the steps to locate your MAC address are the same.
- Tap on the
Your MAC address is just next to the label
Since smartphone manufacturers tend to heavily customize Android when they ship their device, the steps that follow might be a little different from your Android device. In my case, I’m using a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
- From your home screen, tap on the right menu on your smartphone and select
- Tap on the
Moreicon at the top and select
- Choose the
- Switch on your PlayStation 4 without any disk in the drive and wait until the bottom menu to show up.
- Select Settings and then System.
- On the new screen, pick up System Information.
- You should see your MAC address associated with your LAN cable or Wi-Fi.