Where can i find my mac address when it's shut down ?

In addition:

If you've another device to log in to the router, you can temporarely disable the control of the MAC address for new WLAN devices.

Regards, Lars

What do you mean with Mac Address exactly? An old mac.com mail address or is it - maybe - your MacBooks MAC address?

Where should this address be entered? While installing OS X or in your WLAN router? Maybe we'll be able to help with a little bit more of information!?

Regards, Lars

Hi Uwe,

option 1: If you've the original packaging of your MacBook, the MAC addresses for the build-in ethernet and WLAN hardware are on the label outside.

option 2: Connect the MacBook with an ethernet cable to your router (I assume, therefore the MAC address is not necessary), do the setup of OS X and after that lookup the MAC address of the WLAN interface with the system information tool.

option 3: Boot from an USB stick or DVD ROM and lookup the MAC address like mentioned in option 2.

Any of this suitable for you?

What type of WLAN router are you using? AVM?

Regards, Lars

Hi Uwe,

no, I mean the sticker with the MacBook's data (memory, harddisk, serial number, …) on it, which is glued to the carton, in which the MacBook was packed and delivered by Apple.

For WPA/WPA2: Hope you use it for security reasons, but this is not the router type/manufacturer.

I think, option 2 with an Ethernet cable will work. Would be great to hear from you, whether you'll be successful or not.

Regards, Lars

The MAC address is hardcoded as part of the WiFi or Ethernet hardware. Resetting your Mac does not change the MAC (Media Access Control) address. Installing new software does not change the MAC address.

System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> Hardware -> MAC Address: nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn

From an Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal session you can use

/sbin/ifconfig

then look for en0 (Ethernet) or en1 (WiFi) and under that item should be an entry "ether: nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn" which is the MAC address for networking interface.

Hi Bob,

I skipped that, because as I understood Uwe, there is actually no system on his MacBook to log in and therefore no chance to find out the MAC addresses by the tools delivered with OS X. ;-)

Regards, Lars

If there is no system, then it cannot get on the net anyway 🙂

Unless Fam.Weigel is booting into the Recovery Partition. if that is the case, you can startup a Terminal session from the Recovery partition, and run the /sbin/ifconfig command.

Boot into Single User Mode (assumes there is some OS of some kind, even the Recovery partition) and then in Single User Mode issue the /sbin/config command.

My Macbook is 'Starting Internet Recovery' But it can't connect to our WiFi in house.

I'm not an expert in Mac's, so can you tell me what you mean with the /sbin/ifconfig command ?

The easy option is to turn off MAC (Media Access Control) address checking in the router until after you get your Mac backup and running again. MAC address filtering is easily defeated anyway, so it is not very much protection.

If you still want to find your Mac's MAC address, then in Recovery Mode, you can go to the Menu bar and there should be an entry to start a Terminal session.

From the Terminal session started in Recovery Mode, enter the command

/sbin/ifconfig

Look for the 'en1:' entry. This should be the WiFi networking interface.

1 or 2 lines under the 'en1:' entry will be a line starting with 'ether' and followed by nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn

that will be the MAC address.

If there is no 'en1:' entry then try 'en0:'

At worse, you find ALL the 'ether' entries and add them ALL to your router.

The /sbin/ifconfig output should look similar to this (not exactly, but similar)

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384

options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>

inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128

inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000

inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280

stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

options=10b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,AV>

ether 11:22:33:44:55:66

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

media: autoselect (none)

status: inactive

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 22:33:44:55:66:77 <<< Most likely WiFi MAC address location in the /sbin/ifconfig output

inet6 fe80::6aa8:6dff:fe2d:5cd4%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5

inet 10.0.0.138 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.0.255

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

media: autoselect

status: active

fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078

lladdr a4:b1:97:ff:fe:8d:80:00

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

media: autoselect <full-duplex>

status: inactive

en2: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

options=60<TSO4,TSO6>

ether 33:44:55:66:77:88

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

media: autoselect <full-duplex>

status: inactive

bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6>

ether 44:55:66:77:88:99

Configuration:

id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0

maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200

root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0

ipfilter disabled flags 0x2

nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>

media: <unknown type>

status: inactive

p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304

ether 55:66:77:88:99:aa

media: autoselect

status: inactive

Question? Can't you just connect an Ethernet cable? MAC filtering generally does not apply to direct Ethernet connections between the computer and the router.

Just another thought for getting you back online.

Plug the Mac into the router with an ethernet cable instead of using WiFi

Yeah, the recovery partition is an option, although the Terminal is not everyone's friend! 🙂