When troubleshooting networking issues, it is sometimes necessary to find the computer's unique MAC (media access control) address to identify it on the network. It is a 6 pair hexadecimal string of characters, is unique to each piece of network equipment in the computer, and never changes. It is also called the WiFi Address or Physical Address. Follow the directions below to find the MAC Address for your device.
Mac OS X:
- Click on the Apple icon in the left of the menu bar, click System Preferences, then click the Network icon.
- Select WiFi on the left and click Advanced on the bottom right.
- The Wi-Fi Address should be listed at the bottom of the popup window.
Windows 10:
- Click on the Wireless or Wired icon in the notification area in the bottom right of your screen, and click Network & Internet Settings.
- In the new window, on the left, click on the internet connection you're using, either Wi-Fi (for wireless connections) or Ethernet (for wired connections).
- In the main section of the window, click Hardware Properties.
- Make sure this is the active connection by seeing that there are numbers in the IPv4 Address and IPv4 DNS Servers fields.
- The Physical Address (MAC) field at the bottom is the infromation that's needed.
- You can also click the Copy button at the bottom to copy the entire list of information, then Paste that into your email.
Windows 7:
- Click on the Wireless or Wired icon in the notification area in the bottom right of your screen, and click Open Network and Sharing Center.
- In the Control Panel popup, in the View your active networks section, in the Connection field, click each entry listed there.
- You will usually only see one item listed, and it will typically be WiFi Connection if you are connected via wireless.
- In the Status popup, click the Details button.
- The Physical Address listed is the MAC Address for that network adapter.
iPhone & iPad
- Launch the Settings app
- Go to the General section, then go to About.
- Scroll down to view the WiFi (MAC) Address.
Note for iOS 15 users, turn off the Private Address setting on Wellesley Secure.
- In Settings, tap on WiFi.
- In WiFi, Wellesley Secure should be the WiFi network you're connected to, tap on the (i) icon next to it.
- The slider next to Private Address should be gray. If it's green, tap on it to disable it.
- Your permanent WiFi Address will be listed there once the setting is disabled.
Android:
- On the Home screen, tap the Menu key and go to Settings.
- Scroll down and tap About, then tap Status.
- Scroll down to view WiFi (MAC) Address.
Chromebook:
- Click the Wi-Fi icon in the bottom right of your screen and click Connected to ...
- At the top of the popup window, click on the name of your network.
- In the window that opens, click the Connection tab and the Hardware Address is your WiFi MAC Address.