A MAC address is a device's wireless or wired (Ethernet) physical address. It is assigned by the manufacturer and will consist of 12 characters, most often displayed with a colon or hyphen separating every two digits (an octet). An example would be 01:a2:b3:c4:d5:e6.
An IP address is a unique identifier for your device, assigned by a network once you connect successfully. It consists of four parts separated by dots. An example would be 141.219.xxx.xxx, with the x's being numbers.
General instructions
The MAC address will be listed in the network settings for your device. The instructions will vary for obtaining the wired or wireless MAC device. If it is a university-owned computer, it may be listed on the computer label, listed next to HW Address. You can find your MAC address without having to be connected to the Internet.
If you are successfully connected to the Internet, you can find your public IP Address is by searching What is my IP address in Google Search. Google will then display your public IP address.
Specific operating systems
Windows 10/11
Wired (Ethernet)
- Select the WIndows icon or Start Menu
- Enter Ethernet settings
- Select Ethernet settings
- The Physical address (MAC) will display in the hardware properties.
- The IP address will appear in the IP address, if connected successfully to an Ethernet (wired) connection.
Wireless
- Select the WIndows icon or Start Menu
- Enter Wi-Fi Settings
- Select Wi-Fi Settings
- The Physical address (MAC) will display in the hardware properties
All Windows versions using cmd
- Select the Start menu and type:
cmd
. Select the cmd application in the Start menu panel.
- A command line window will open. Type:
ipconfig /all
and press Enter.
- MAC address
- The wired physical address will be listed under Ethernet adapter Ethernet: Physical Address.
- The wireless physical address will be listed under Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi: Physical Address.
- IP address: The IP address will be listed next to IPv4 Address under either Ethernet adapter Ethernet:or Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi: depending on how your device is connected
Mac
- Select the Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen in the Menu Bar.
- In System Preferences, select the Network icon.
- In the Network preference pane, select Ethernet for a wired connection or Wi-Fi for a wireless connection.
- MAC address
- Select Ethernet --> Advanced --> Hardware for the wired physical address.
- Select Wi-Fi --> Advanced --> Hardware for the wireless physical address.
- IP address: Select Ethernet or Wi-Fi to find the IP Address listed under Status, depending on how your device is connected.
Linux
- Open a terminal. You can find this in your list of applications or by searching for terminal.
- Enter the command:
ifconfig -a
to find the list of wired and wireless physical MAC addresses listed by the adapter name. The commands and adapter names vary. which could be HWaddr, ether, etc. Note that your Linux distribution may vary with the command and how it lists the MAC address. ip addr
is another command that you could use but you will need to find out the adapter names and the syntax based on your distribution.
- Enter the command:
ip addr show
to find the IP address for each device listed after inet (most likely after device eth0.
Raspberry Pi
- Open a terminal on your Raspberry Pi.
- Enter the command:
ip link show
to find the IP address for each device listed. eth0 is the wired MAC address and wlan0 is the wireless MAC address.