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Unix for Advanced Users

7. Viewing System Information

7.1.4 What is my system's MAC address?

Every ethernet card that has been manufactured has its own unique identification number called its MAC (Media Access Control) address (sometimes referred to as a hardware address). The address itself is most often expressed as a set of six pairs of hexidecimal digits separated by a colon, like this:

00:60:08:A8:83:B3

The command to show the MAC address differs from OS to OS:

AIX: the MAC address can be viewed using the netstat -ia command.

HP-UX: the MAC address can be viewed using the lanscan command under the heading Station Address.

IRIX: will display the hardware address with the command nvram eaddr. It should be noted that you can also display this address and its decimal counterpart using the sysinfo -vv command.

Linux: To see the hardware address on a Linux machine you can use the ifconfig command. The value will be next to the HWaddr heading.

Solaris: arp -a | grep hostname will show you the system's MAC address.

Tru64 UNIX: netstat -ia will show you the station's MAC address.

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