Discovering Your MAC Address in Windows & OS X
Hey there! I’m here to help you figure out how to find your MAC address on both Windows and OS X systems. Don’t worry, it’s not too complicated, and I’ll guide you through the process step by step.
In Windows:
1. First things first, let’s open up the command prompt. You can do this by pressing the Windows key + R, typing in “cmd,” and hitting enter. The command prompt window should pop up.
2. Now, in the command prompt, type in “ipconfig /all” and hit enter. Don’t let the technical jargon scare you! This command simply displays all your network settings.
3. Look for the line that says “Physical Address” or “MAC Address.” Your MAC address will be a series of numbers and letters separated by dashes or colons. It might look something like this: 00-00-00-00-00-00 or 00:00:00:00:00:00.
4. Voila! You’ve found your MAC address in Windows. Make a note of it, as you might need it later.
In OS X:
1. Let’s start by opening up the System Preferences. You can do this by clicking on the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen and selecting “System Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
2. In the System Preferences window, look for the “Network” icon and click on it. This will take you to the network settings.
3. In the left-hand column, select the network connection you’re using (Wi-Fi or Ethernet). Then click on the “Advanced” button in the bottom right corner.
4. A new window will pop up. Click on the “Hardware” tab, and you’ll find your MAC address listed as “Ethernet ID” or “Wi-Fi Address.” It will be a series of six pairs of numbers and letters separated by colons.
5. Great job! You now know how to find your MAC address in OS X. Remember to jot it down somewhere safe.
Now that you’ve successfully located your MAC address on both Windows and OS X, you’re ready to tackle any networking challenges that may come your way. Keep this information in your back pocket – it may prove useful in the future!
So, I had to move our office and replace some equipment this week. After that, I realized that we need to reconfigure our network and DHCP reservations. There are a few ways to do this, but I thought it would be best to use each computer’s MAC address (which stands for Media Access Control, by the way) to create the reservation. Just to clarify, the MAC address has nothing to do with Apple Macintosh computers. Now, let me show you how to find your MAC address quickly in both Windows and OS X.
Windows
There are two simple ways to find your MAC address in Windows. Let me explain the first method, which involves using the Command Prompt. Here’s what you need to do:
For Windows 7: Click the Start Button, then select “Run.” In the input field that appears, type “cmd” and press Enter.
For Windows 8: Press the Windows key on your keyboard or click the lower-left corner of your Desktop to open the Start Screen. Type “cmd” or “Command Prompt” and press Enter or click on the app when it appears.
Once you’re at the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter:
getmac
To find the MAC address of my Windows PC, I need to go to the “Physical Address” section. It should be displayed there. In this example, the MAC address is C8-60-00-DE-F9-4A.
If I want to find the MAC address of another computer on my network, I can use the getmac command with the “/s” parameter. For example, I can use “getmac /s beta” to get the MAC address of a computer named “beta”.
getmac /s beta
If I’m interested, I can explore all the parameters of the getmac command by typing “getmac /?” and accessing a complete list of its functions.
Another simple way to find my PC’s MAC address is to view the network connection status details. On Windows 7 and 8, I can right-click on the network icon in the notification area and select “Open Network and Sharing Center.” I can also reach the same place through the Control Panel (Control Panel > Network and Internet > View Network Status and Tasks). 
Here, I will see my network connection(s) listed on the right side of the window. In this example, there is a single Ethernet connection. 
By clicking on the connection name, I can view its status. Then, on the General tab, I can click “Details” and look for the Physical Address property to find my MAC address.
Mac OS X
To find my MAC address in OS X, I need to go to System Preferences > Network and select my active network interface from the list on the left. In this example, it’s an Ethernet connection. 
I should then click “Advanced” in the lower right corner and go to the Hardware tab. My MAC address will be listed at the top. 
If I want a copy of my MAC address, I can simply press Command+C while in this window and it will be copied to the clipboard.
Now that I have my MAC addresses, I can use them for tasks like assigning DHCP reservations or managing my network through the router’s configuration tool.
