How to detect the TRUE MAC address ?

li-nux-user · 02-26-2009, 11:05 AM

How can I detect the hardware MAC address of my NIC ?

I know, I can see it using "ifconfig", however how can I make sure the program shows me the true hardware MAC address assigned to the NIC by its manufacturer ?

In other words: Does "ifconfig" REALLY always refer to the hardware ?

Where can I find a confirmation of this ?

I am asking, because MAC address can also be stored somewhere in the system, ex. in ifcfg-eth0 file, and "ifconfig" may return any address, and not the value from NIC.

osdeals · 02-26-2009, 11:20 AM

Not a completely foolproof solution, but if you know the manufacturer of the network card, take a look at the mac, and check it at http://www.coffer.com/mac_find/ , or at http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml . If the manufacturer matches, the probability that you're seeing the right mac is a lot higher.

Valery Reznic · 03-01-2009, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by li-nux-user

How can I detect the hardware MAC address of my NIC ?

I know, I can see it using "ifconfig", however how can I make sure the program shows me the true hardware MAC address assigned to the NIC by its manufacturer ?

In other words: Does "ifconfig" REALLY always refer to the hardware ?

Where can I find a confirmation of this ?

I am asking, because MAC address can also be stored somewhere in the system, ex. in ifcfg-eth0 file, and "ifconfig" may return any address, and not the value from NIC.

ifconfig not used ifcfg-eth0 to get info.

You can run ifconfig under strace

Code:

strace -e open /sbin/ifconfig eth0

to see by yourself what files are accessed

JulianTosh · 03-01-2009, 03:57 AM

thanks for that nifty tool!