Manually changing MAC addresses
Serdar Yegulalp
The MAC address (or Media Access Control) of a network adapter is a hardware-level ID number that uniquely identifies a network card. Some network cards come with a MAC address hard-wired, but some can have their MAC address changed through software. (Check the network card's documentation to see if this is possible.)
Jul 18, 2015 MAC Address or Media Access Control Address is a unique address or identifier assigned to network interfaces. MAC Addresses are mostly assigned by the manufacturers but can be manually changed.
If your NIC is one of the latter, then you can use the following procedure to edit the MAC address in Windows 2000.
- Open the Network and Dial-Up Connections window, and right-click on the network connection with the adapter you wish to edit. Select Properties.
- Click the Configure button to edit the properties of the network adapter.
- Select the Advanced tab. Select Locally Administered Address and enter the new MAC value. (If Locally Administered Address does not appear, then chances are your MAC address can't be edited.)
- Jul 25, 2012 There are 3 ways (that I know of) to temporary change the Hardware address (MAC address) in Linux and Unix systems. When you change the MAC address for an interface, you need to have the network interface disabled (down) and than to set the new MAC. You can do both this things with the command: sudo.
- Apr 17, 2019 How to Find Your Mac Address on Android. This wikiHow teaches you how to find the MAC Address on your Android phone or tablet. A MAC address, which stands for 'Media Access Control,' is a type of identification code assigned to network.
The same change can be made directly to the Registry:
- Open REGEDT32 and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices.
- One of the subkeys under Services will be the driver name for your NIC. If you don't know what the driver name is, you can find out by getting the Properties of the NIC as above, clicking on the Driver tab, and then clicking Driver Details. My server has an SMC brand NIC in it, with the driver name SMCPWR2N.SYS. Consequently, the subkey is named SMCPWR2N.
- Add a new REG_SZ value in the appropriate subkey, named Old MAC Address. Add the new MAC address to use as the string value for this key.
Either way, when you make the listed changes, you need to reboot the computer. After rebooting, open up a command prompt and type ipconfig /all to verify that the new address has taken effect.
Mac Instructions Manual
Serdar Yegulalp is the editor of the Windows 2000 Power Users Newsletter.
A device’s MAC address is assigned by the manufacturer, but it’s not to hard to change—or “spoof”—those addresses when you need to. Here’s how do do it, and why you might want to.
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Each network interface connected to your network—whether it’s your router, wireless device, or network card in your computer—has a unique media access control (MAC) address. These MAC addresses—sometimes referred to as physical or hardware addresses—are assigned in the factory, but you can usually change the addresses in software.
What MAC Addresses Are Used For
At the lowest networking level, network interfaces attached to a network use MAC addresses to communicate with one another. When a browser on your computer needs to grab a web page from a server on the Internet, for example, that request passes down through several layers of the TCP/IP protocol. The web address you type gets translated to the IP address of the server. Your computer sends the request to your router, which then sends it out onto the Internet. At the hardware level of your network card, though, your network card is only looking at other MAC addresses for interfaces on the same network. It knows to send the request to the MAC address of your router’s network interface.
In addition to their core networking use, MAC addresses are often used for other purposes:
- Static IP Assignment: Routers allow you to assign static IP addresses to your computers. When a device connects, it always receives a specific IP address if it has a matching MAC address
- MAC Address Filtering: Networks can use MAC address filtering, only allowing devices with specific MAC addresses to connect to a network. This isn’t a great security tool because people can spoof their MAC addresses.
- MAC Authentication: Some Internet service providers may require authentication with a MAC address and only allow a device with that MAC address to connect to the Internet. You may need to change your router or computer’s MAC address to connect.
- Device Identification: Many airport Wi-Fi networks and other public Wi-Fi networks use a device’s MAC address to identify it. For example, an airport Wi-Fi network might offer a free 30 minutes and then ban your MAC address from receiving more Wi-Fi. Change your MAC address and you could get more Wi-Fi. (Free, limited Wi-Fi may also be tracked using browser cookies or an account system.)
- Device Tracking: Because they’re unique, MAC addresses can be used to track you. When you walk around, your smartphone scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks and broadcasts its MAC address. A company named Renew London used trash bins in the city of London to track people’s movements around the city based on their MAC addresses. Apple’s iOS 8 will use a random MAC address each time it scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks to prevent this sort of tracking.
Bear in mind that each network interface has its own MAC address. So, on a typical laptop with both a Wi-Fi radio and a wired Ethernet port, the wireless and wired network interface each have their own unique MAC addresses.
Change a MAC Address in Windows
Most network cards allow you to set a custom MAC address from their configuration panes in the Device Manager, although some network drivers may not support this feature.
First, open the Device Manager. On Windows 8 and 10, press Windows+X, and then click “Device Manager” on the Power User menu. On Windows 7, press the Windows key, type “Device Manager” to search for it, and then click the “Device Manager” entry. The Device Manager app will look the same no matter which version of Windows you’re using.
In Device Manager, under the “Network adapters” section, right-click the network interface you want to modify, and then select “Properties” from the context menu.
In the properties window, on the “Advanced” tab and select the “Network Address” entry in the “Property” list. If you don’t see this option, then your network driver doesn’t support this feature.
Enable the Value option and type your desired MAC address without any separating characters—don’t use dashes or colons. Click “OK” when you’re done.
Change a MAC Address in Linux
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Modern Linux distributions like Ubuntu typically use Network Manager, which provides a graphical way to spoof a MAC address.
For example, in Ubuntu you’d click the network icon on the top panel, click “Edit Connections,” select the network connection you want to modify, and then click “Edit.” On the Ethernet tab, you’d enter a new MAC address in the “Cloned MAC address” field, and then save your changes.
You can also do this the old-fashioned way. This involves taking the network interface down, running a command to change its MAC address, and then bringing it back up. Be sure to replace “eth0” with the name of the network interface you want to modify and enter the MAC address of your choice:
You’ll have to modify the appropriate configuration file under /etc/network/interfaces.d/
or the /etc/network/interfaces
file itself if you want this change to always take effect at boot time. If you don’t, your MAC address will be reset when you restart.
Change a MAC Address in Mac OS X
Mac OS X’s System Preferences pane displays each network interface’s MAC address, but doesn’t allow you to change it. For that, you need the Terminal.
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Open a Terminal window (press Command + Space, type “Terminal,” and then press Enter.) Run the following command, replacing en0
with your network interface’s name and filling in your own MAC address:
The network interface will generally be either en0
or en1
, depending on whether you want to configure a Mac’s Wi-Fi or Ethernet interface. Run the ifconfig
command to see a list of interfaces if you’re not sure of the appropriate network interface’s name.
As on Linux, this change is temporary and will be reset when you next reboot. You’ll need to use a script that automatically runs this command on boot if you’d like to permanently change your Mac address.
You can verify your change took effect by running a command that shows your network connection details and checking what MAC address your network interface reports afterwards. On Windows, run the ipconfig /all
command in a Command Prompt window. On Linux or Mac OS X, run the ifconfig
command. And if you need to change the MAC address on your router, you’ll find this option in your router’s web interface.
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