05/23/2014 09:07:14 AM

Whether your computing or mobile device of choice is a phone, tablet, or laptop, it has one or network adapters that you can use to connect to the Internet or other devices. And whether the you’re communictaing using wired or wireless Ethernet, Bluetooth, cellular/mobile, or near electrostatic field communication phenomena, it’s likely that the network adapter has a hardware or MAC address. 

There are several situations where you may need to know your MAC address. Since MAC addresses are “hard wired” by the manufacturer, they are considered fixed (permanent) addresses, so IT admins sometimes use MAC addresses for device (re)authentication in schools, universities, hotels, or corporate networks. And while it’s true that you can change your MAC address, the average user doesn’t do this, and you may be violating an AUP if you do change the address on company-owned devices.

So let’s assume that at some point, you may be asked, “What is the MAC address of your device?”

Here’s a table of popular device operating systems and a short explanation of how you can find your MAC address:

Operating System	Method
Windows OS	From START, type cmd.exe in the search input form. In the CMD window, type getmac. You can also use ipconfig/all.
Open BSD (Mac OS X) or any Linux OS	Launch Terminal, type ifconfig or ipconfig -a then look for “ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx” or “HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx”
iPhone, iPad	Go to Settings -> General -> About then scroll to WiFi Address
Android OS	Go to Settings -> About Tablet -> Status then scroll to Wi-Fi MAC address
Symbian OS	Enter *#62209526#
Blackberry 10.5	Go to Settings -> Network Connections -> Wi-Fi -> Advanced. Choose Select Device Information from the Diagnostic Information drop-down. The MAC address is displayed in the field labeled Physical Address
RaspPi	Assuming you’re running a Linux build, it’s again, ipconfig or ipconfig -a

Note: OpenBSD or Linux variants will also display MAC addresses when you use certain forms of netstat.