Physical Address (MAC Address)
   
Physical Address (MAC Address)  
 

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Every network interface has a MAC address (Media Access Controller) also known as the physical address. This is the actual hardware address that the lowest level of the network uses to communicate. The MAC address is used to assign the TCP/IP address by means of DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protcol). For that reason, we need the MAC address of a machine so that it can be properly, and easily configured for the network.

How to determine your physical address: The physical address is an 8 byte number such as "08:00:20:9A:38:34" On Windows it will sometimes be represented with dashes between the numbers. Please always include the :'s between the numbers.

  • Sun workstation (Solaris)
    When the system boots, the address is displayed in the initial 3 or 4 lines that get displayed on the screen.

    or
    arp -a
    Will display the current ARP table, look for the machine name 

    le1    jove                 255.255.255.255 SP    08:00:20:72:ea:4d
le2    jove                 255.255.255.255 SP    08:00:20:72:ea:4d

  • Macintosh
    • Go to the TCP/IP control pannel
    • Click on INFO. If the INFO button is not present, go to the EDIT MENU, select USER MODE, and then select ADVANCED.

  • Windows
    There are several ways on Windows to get the MAC address, and often Windows will report 2 different Mac addresses. If you do see 2 address, ALWAYS pick the one that starts with 0 not the one that start with a 4.

    • From a dos prompt, type winipcfg, the physical address in this case is 00-60-08-1E-BE-E3. Please note, that in different versions of Windows, this dialog may appear slightly different. If the drop down menu says PPP Adapter, click on it and select the Ethernet Adapter. If the number starts with a 4, its the wrong number.

    • From a dos prompt, type ipconfig /all In the example below 00-60-08-1E-BE-E3 is the MAC address. Do not use the one that starts with 44. In Windows, this is the MAC address for the DIAL-UP interface.
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