Shaun McCance
shaunm@gnome.org
Jim Campbell
jwcampbell@gmail.com
Michael Hill
mdhillca@gmail.com
Ekaterina Gerasimova
kittykat3756@gmail.com
The unique identifier assigned to network hardware.
What is a MAC address?
A MAC address is the unique identifier that is assigned by the
manufacturer to a piece of network hardware (like a wireless card or an
ethernet card). MAC stands for Media Access Control, and each
identifier is intended to be unique to a particular device.
A MAC address consists of six sets of two characters, each separated by a
colon. 00:1B:44:11:3A:B7 is an example of a MAC address.
To identify the MAC address of your own network hardware:
-
Open the Activities overview and
start typing Network.
-
Click on Network to open the panel.
-
Choose which device, Wi-Fi or Wired, from
the left pane.
The MAC address for the wired device will be displayed as the
Hardware Address on the right.
Click the
settings
button to see the MAC address for the wireless device displayed as the
Hardware Address in the Details panel.
In practice, you may need to modify or “spoof” a MAC address. For example,
some internet service providers may require that a specific MAC address be
used to access their service. If the network card stops working, and you need
to swap a new card in, the service won’t work anymore. In such cases, you
would need to spoof the MAC address.