First a bit of theory.The MAC address is the static name of the network device that the manufacturer has planted. Full decoding of the abbreviation - media access control. There are absolutely all devices based on ethernet, and, consequently, and your network adapter.
In the standard OSI model, the physical address playsthe role of the device's channel identifier. It uses all high-level protocols, similar to IP versions 4 and 6. The physical addresses of network devices, namely how the MAC can be determined, are distributed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an international non-profit organization. Conversion to IP address and back is carried out using the ARP protocol and Reverse ARP. This MAC address consists of 48 bits, divided into 6 octets (8 bits each).
TCP / IP networks use the variation of the notationMAC-48 devices. So the question of how to learn the MAC-address arises from time to time for novice system administrators and advanced users. This is due to the extensive use of this standard in data networks.
So, if you have a question about how to find outMAC-address, we hasten to please you - it's extremely simple. You just need to open the Windows console and type a command that is universal for all systems, starting with XP. The console can be found in the "Run" menu, which is located in the "Start" menu. Type cmd in the opened window and click OK. A window with a black background appears where the white cursor will blink. Now you need to type ipconfig / all and the system will give you all the configuration information, including the MAC address in the hexadecimal system of calculation, which is located in the "Physical address" field. In accordance with international standards, the first three octets are assigned by the vendor (manufacturer) of the device.
Sometimes for cognitive or practical purposesyou need to not only determine how to learn the MAC address. For example, it is a very typical situation when you have a poppy binding for accessing the Internet in your provider network, and you brought a new device and you need to connect it urgently, which is problematic, because the tech support person is not in place, let's say, because of the holidays.
In the absence of a router, except as a change of addresson the new device on the old MAC address this problem can not be solved. From the previous part of the article, you got information about how to learn the MAC address of the computer.
Further, many mistakenly believe that the physicalthe address of the device and the IP are the same, and changing the second is worthless, however, this is a little more complicated than simply changing the IP. It should be noted that the information below is provided for informational purposes. Remember that if you assign a foreign MAC-address, it is qualified in accordance with articles 272 / 272.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation!
Nevertheless, it will be useful for you to find out howchange the MAC address. To do this, go to "Device Manager" and select your network device. Most often it will be a network card. Depending on the driver version, the menu items may differ. In general, select the "Advanced" tab and look for "Network Adress". Now set the appropriate value for the format.
But, perhaps you will not find any similar settingsin the properties of your adapter or need a more convenient facility. Then you should use a specialized utility to change the MAC address - Macshift. The manufacturer claims work only on XP systems. You can use the utility from the command line (how to do this, already mentioned above). The -i option allows you to specify the name of the network adapter (which should be taken from the network device manager), after the space, you must specify the desired address, which must consist of 12 digits of the decimal alphabet. You can also use the random (-r) key to change the value to an arbitrary value. By the way, this option is set by default. You can restore the original address of the device with the -d switch.
There is another popular program for the shiftMAC addresses are SMAC. Its capabilities are much broader. Support for operating systems - from Windows 2000 to "seven", you can select up to 10 recently used addresses, the support list includes almost all manufacturers of network cards. The program also issues network card logs and other important information, so the problem of how to learn the MAC address without using the command line and hidden menus does not come before the user of this utility.
