How To: Change Or Spoof MAC Address In Windows
MAC stands for Media Access Control and in a sense the MAC address is a computer’s true name on a LAN. An Ethernet MAC address is a six byte number, usually expressed as a twelve digit hexadecimal number (Example: 1AB4C234AB1F). Although physical MAC addresses are permanent by design, several mechanisms allow modification, or “spoofing”, of the MAC address that is reported by the operating system. This can be useful for privacy reasons, for instance when connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or to ensure interoperability.
This tutorial describes a quick method to change or spoof the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the network adapter(NIC) or adapters installed in your Windows based computer.
- Go to Start->Settings->Control Panel and double click on Network and Dial-up Connections.
- Right click on the NIC(Network Interface Card) you want to change the MAC address and click on properties.
- Under “General” tab, click on the “Configure” button
- Click on “Advanced” tab
- Under “Property section”, you should see an item called “Network Address” or “Locally Administered Address”, click on it.
- On the right side, under “Value”, type in the New MAC address you want to assign to your NIC. Usually this value is entered with the “-“ between the MAC address numbers.
- Go to command prompt and type in “ipconfig /all” or to verify the changes.
This is the simplest way to change or spoof your MAC address in Windows.
However, a better solution – requiring Administrative User Rights – is to pass over the System Registry Keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. Here settings for each network interface can be found. The contents of the string value called ‘NetworkAddress‘ will be used to set the MAC address of the adapter when next it is enabled. Resetting the adapter can be accomplished in script with the freely available command line utility devcon from Microsoft, or from the adapters context menu in the Network Connections control panel applet.
Warning:
MAC address spoofing is generally not recommended unless you need it. Since the MAC is needed to find your computer at a local level, changing your MAC address will tend to confuse the router.
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Written by Tony on May 23rd, 2009 with
1 comment.
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#1. October 23rd, 2009, at 6:04 AM.
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