How to change MAC address in Windows, Mac, Linux and Android

This guide is all about MAC address and how to change MAC address in Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android phones. You can also know how to check mac address of Windows, Linux, Mac PC, and android phone.

What is a MAC Address?

Media access control (MAC) is the physical number that comes with every Network Interface Card. Be it a computer, phone, or wifi router, every device that can connect to the internet comes with a built-in address called as MAC. The MAC address consists of 12 alphanumeric values with six pairs of 2 values separated by the dash.

E.g. – 1A-2B-3C-4D-5E-6F.

MAC is used to identify the device connected and can be traced out with the provided number. However, you can change the Mac address of your computer /mobile by changing some settings.

The MAC address is hard-coded with the device, so we cannot directly replace it. Instead, we can spoof the MAC address to hide the original id and show the spoofed MAC address.

Why change the MAC address?

Well, you might get this question. There are many reasons to change the MAC address of a device.

1. One of the reasons is to access the restricted network. For example, if some wifi network allows the only specific number of the device by filtering MAC ids. You can spoof the MAC id with one of the allowed MAC addresses to access the network.

2. Another reason to change mac address is that if your wifi provider allows only a certain number of devices, you need to access the internet on the additional device. In this case, you can change the MAC address of that device with one of the already allowed devices.

3. One more reason to change the MAC Address is Privacy. Your Ethernet connection can quickly know your MAC address and track you. By spoofing Mac id, you can hide from the network.

4. Hackers can use your MAC address if your MAC id is public. To protect your data and protect yourself, you can change the MAC address on your device.

How to change MAC Address?

We will see the method to change ma address on your devices like android phone, windows computer, MacBook.

A] How to change MAC address Windows?

Changing a MAC address in windows is an easy process.

1. You first have to go to network settings from the control panel.
   Control panel – network and internet – network and sharing center – change adaptor settings.
   
2. Now right-click on your active internet connection (it can be an Ethernet or wireless network).
3. Select the Properties option from the menu and click on the Configure button.
4. From the left side list of properties, select locally administered Address.
5. On the right side, select the present value option and type the 12 digit MAC address that you want to spoof/change. Remember that don’t type “-” (dash) here.
   

Now Save the changes and restart the computer. You can now check the changed MAC Address from the below procedure.

How to find MAC address in Windows 10/8/7

1. To check MAC address in windows, open the Run tool by pressing Win + R button.
2. Type cmd and hit enter.
3. On the command prompt, now type the following command and press enter.

ipconfig /all

You can see the MAC address of your Windows PC in the command window.

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B] Change MAC address Mac PC?

Well, Apple is somehow a closed source OS. It’s a little difficult to change MAC address of Mac PC. Don’t worry, I will explain it in the easiest way. To change the MAC address in Mac PC, you need to access the terminal windows. The terminal is somewhat similar to the command prompt in windows.

At first, you should know the MAC address on Mac PC.

How to find the MAC address in Mac PC

Open the terminal window and type the following command to know the MAC id.

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

Now, the command prompt will show you the MAC address. Rember that, depending upon the number of the interface of your mac, you need to add 1 to “en“ of the command until you get all Mac addresses.

Stop after you get the “interface does not exist” error.

Now, we should compare these MAC with the address from settings. Go to System Preferences –> Network –> Select active network –> Click on Advanced button.

On the Hardware tab, you can see the Mac address. Now compare this Mac address with terminal addresses and check what “en“ value is to use. in my case, it is en1.

Now we continue with how to change MaC address –

1. You must have administrator access to change MAC address in Mac PC. otherwise; you cant change MAC. to start, log in with the admin account
2. Open the terminal window by pressing Command+Space, search terminal, and open the terminal window.
3. Once you find the MAC addresses (from the above section) and finalize the en value, open the terminal window and type the following command with your en value.

   sudo ifconfig en1 ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
   

   You can replace x with any alphanumeric value.

4. Hit enter, and your mac id should change. Restart PC once and check the new MAC address.

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C] How to change MAC address in Linux?

Since we all know Linux is an open-source OS, it should not be that difficult to change MAC address in Linux. Let’s get started,

1. First, you must turn off the network card to change mac address in Linux. Type the following command in the command prompt.

   ifconfig eth0 down

2. Now spoof mac address using the following command.

3. ifconfig eth0 hw ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
   

   Replace the X value with any alphanumeric value.

4. Finally, you can turn ON the network card using the following command.

5. ifconfig eth0 up

How to find MAC address in Linux?

To check the Mac address, you can type the following command in the command prompt.

ifconfig eth0 | grep HWaddr

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Also Read – How to automount drives in Linux

D] How to change MAC address in Android?

Well, Android is made up of Linux, so it is indeed nearly as identical as Linux. There are two methods to change MAC address in Android.

Method1 – How to change MAC address without root in Android phone?

You can change the mac id of Android even if you are not rooted. Below is the step-by-step guide on how to do it.

1. You need a terminal emulator for Android to perform this task. Download terminal emulator app from play store from here.
2. Type the following command to see your MAC address. Also, select the interface number from the displayed mac id.

   ip link show

   

3. Now type the following command to change MAC address in unrooted Android.

   ip link set wlan0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
   

   Here, instead of wlan0, type your wlan interface value. Also, replace the X value with your choice of alphanumeric value.

4. Once you press enter, your MAC address change is done.

Remember that this method has some limitations. The first one is this method works on MediaTek devices. The second limitation is your changed MAC address is temporary; when you restart your device, changed mac resets, and the original mac id applies to the device.

Method2 – How to change MAC Address in rooted Android phone?

As the above stated unrooted method has some limitations, so to change the mac address in other devices, you need to have root access on your phone. On your phone, you can go to XDA developers and choose your phone model and follow the rooting guide. Before rooting, please know the risks and benefits of rooting.

1. After you root your device, install the Busybox App from the Play store.
2. Also, install the Android terminal emulator from the play store.
3. Open the emulator and type the following command to gain root access.

   su

4. Now the popup with root permission grant shows up on the screen. Press Grant/Allow button to grant the root access to an emulator.
5. Type the following command to check the wlan interface number.

   ip link show

6. Once you determine the wlan value( for me, it’s wlan0), type the command to change MAC address of your choice.

   busybox ifconfig wlan0 hw ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
   

   Instead of wlan0, type your wlan interface value. Also, replace the X value with your choice of alphanumeric value.

7. Your Ip should change now. Also, with this method, your changed MAC address now remains permanently.

You can now check the changed MAC id from your device settings. You can follow the below guide to know how to check it.

How to find MAC address in Android phone?

To know the MAC address, there is a simple way.

1. Go to the settings of your phone and select the System option from the list.
2. Now tap on About phone and select the status option.
3. On the screen, you can see the mac address.

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Also Read – How to transfer files from Android to pc wireless? [2 simplest methods]

Summary –

MAC address is the thing that comes with every device that can connect to the internet. However, you can change the MAC address on your device for some benefits. There are specific methods to change MAC address in Windows, Android, Mac PC, Linux PC, etc. This guide explains all these methods in detail. I hope this guide has helped you. You can comment below if you have any queries, questions, or suggestions.