Finding the MAC Address & Host Name of a computer is a very simple task that will help us support you better by giving us more information on your machine. These two bits of information are what we use to uniquely identify your computer on our network, and they are instrumental in our troubleshooting process.
Windows Instructions
The steps for finding a MAC on Windows based PCs are as follows:
1. Open the start menu Command Prompt or enter the key bind WIN + R (where WIN is the Windows key on your keyboard), type in cmd.
2. Click the application that shows up in the start menu, or if you used the key bind press enter or OK on the Run Manager Window
3. This should open up a window that looks like the one shown below, from here type in "ipconfig /all" and press enter.
4. From the previous step your command prompt shell should have populated with text relating to your computer's network connection and the hardware within your PC.
5. Scroll within the window until you see a header titled "Wireless LAN Adapter Wi-Fi:" or alternatively, if you are running from an Ethernet connection look for "Ethernet Adapter <Ethernet Name>".
6. Underneath this header you should see a line titled "Physical Address. . . . . . . . . . : <MAC Address>". The text following the colon is your computer's MAC Address.
7. You can then highlight the text and use CTRL + C to email it or save it. Another option is to write it down so that you have it readily available in the future.
Finding a Host Name on a Windows based PC:
1. Open Command Prompt (Start Menu ⇒ Lookup "Command Prompt").
2. From the Command Prompt shell type in "hostname" and press enter.
3. The name that populates your shell is the Host Name of your machine and is what we use in the Active Directory to find your computer.
4. You can then either copy this by highlighting then using CTRL + C or by writing it down for future reference.
Mac OS X instructions
The steps for finding a MAC on a Mac OS X machine are as follows:
1. Open System Preferences through the Cog icon on your application bar or by going to the Apple icon in the top left corner and selecting System Preferences.
2. Under Internet & Wireless open Network.
3. If you are using Wi-Fi to access our network click on the Wi-Fi tab within the left side menu, otherwise click on the Ethernet option.
4. On the bottom right of either of these menus click the "Advanced..." Button.
5. This will open up a new screen; go to the "Hardware" Tab and look for "MAC Address."
6. The mixture of letters and numbers following this is your computer's unique MAC that we use to find you on our network.
Finding a Host Name on a Mac OS X machine:
1. Open System Preferences as outlined in Step 1 above.
2. Look for the "Sharing" tab within your System Preferences, this should be a blue folder with a walking road symbol within it.
3. Once you click on this tab you will see a Computer Name, this is your host name on our network.
Unix / Linux based System Instructions
The steps for finding a MAC on a Unix based machine are as follows:
1. Open up a terminal shell by either using CTRL + T or by searching for terminal within your application's menu.
1a. Note: CTRL + T only works on debian based distributions, you may need to search within the application menu.
2. From the terminal shell make sure that you have the proper permissions by entering "sudo su." This will prompt you for your root password; if you don't have a root account then type the Administrator password for your account.
2a. Step 2 depends entirely on your Computer permission scheme so may not need Sudo permissions to perform this lookup.
3. Within the shell type "ifconfig" and press enter to proceed.
4. You should now see the shell populated with information about your network connection; look for eth0 if you are using a Ethernet connection or wlan0 if you are using a Wi-Fi connection on our network.
5. Next to either eth0: or wlan0: you will see "HWaddr:" or depending on your distribution you will see "ether:"
6. The letters and numbers following these sub headers are your machine's MAC Address.
Finding a Host Name on a Linux / Unix based system:
Preface: Depending on your machine's security settings, you may need to enter a Sudo shell as outlined above in Step 2.
1. Start by opening a terminal with either CTRL + ALT + T or searching for terminal within your application manager.
2. From the shell that pops up, type and enter "hostname" or "hostnamectl".
3. The name that then populates the shell is your computer's unique host name. Alternatively, if you used "hostnamectl" this will be your "Static Hostname".
