MAC addresses

Enter the first three bytes of the MAC address or the complete address.

Where can I find my hardware's MAC address?

In Windows, one place you can find it is by selecting "Status" for a network connection, then looking for the 'Physical address' under "Details" on the "Support" tab. The command line command ipconfig /all also shows this as 'Physical address'.

In Linux, the ifconfig command also shows the "HWaddr".

The ifconfig command can also be used in a terminal window under Mac OS X. The MAC address can also be accessed from the "Network" section in the "System settings" without requiring recourse to the command line.

What is being displayed here?

The IEEE assigns network device manufacturers 24-bit identifiers known as Organizationally Unique Identifiers (OUI). The manufacturers use these (among other things) as the first three bytes of their MAC addresses, so that they can be used to determine the manufacturer of a network device.

MAC addresses beginning with 00:50:C2 are reserved for companies which use very few MAC addresses. They can request assignment of an "Individual Address Block" (IAB), which spans 4096 MAC addresses.

For externally supplied products, the MAC address often indicates the actual manufacturer (OEM). This is not always the case, however, as OEMs often equip their devices with MAC addresses registered to the company whose name will be on the final product as sold. (VAR).

The data for this The H service is provided by the IEEE.