Is it possible to change my MAC address?

The wikipedia article on MAC address mentions that it is stored in the ROM of the NIC. How can the MAC address be changed then?

Manish Mathai

Posted 2009-10-31T15:37:40.123

Reputation: 649

Also see http://superuser.com/a/49884/78897

– Pacerier – 2015-04-06T16:02:20.033

Actually this does not specify if what you want to do this from a windows based computer, however my 2nd source provides instruction for *nix based systems – ricbax – 2009-10-31T16:50:13.940

(Just in case you think that, for example, web sites you visit can see your MAC address: they don't.) – Arjan – 2009-10-31T18:39:50.943

I guess I wasn't clear. I wanted to know how is it possible to change the MAC address and not the actual procedure. – Manish Mathai – 2009-11-02T16:03:29.657

Well, @Manish, you kind of fooled all of us with that title... ;-) – Arjan – 2009-11-06T22:16:05.387

Answers

The physical MAC address is hardware dependent and is stored on the NIC's ROM (EEPROM) chip. To physically change this you would have to do what is known as flashing the ROM chip on the NIC.

You can however do what is know as "spoofing" which is tricking the operating system to think that it is actually different. It can be done within the registry or using 3rd party software.

Sources:

Personal Experience
Changing Your MAC Address

ricbax

Posted 2009-10-31T15:37:40.123

Reputation: 4 894

Also see http://superuser.com/a/875286/78897

– Pacerier – 2015-04-06T15:57:43.097

You can do this quite easily in Windows for most if not all network cards.

Right click on computer->manage
Select device manager double click on your network card
Select the advanced tab
Select Network Address and enter the MAC address you want to use

This can be usable in situations where your ISP has "locked" your connection to a certain MAC address and not assigning any IP address. It's also found in most home routers on the market for this situation.

Paxxi

Posted 2009-10-31T15:37:40.123

Reputation: 6 952

The visual version of this answer is at http://superuser.com/a/875178/78897

– Pacerier – 2015-04-06T15:58:37.443

2this doesn't work for all network adapters, the registry method does. – None – 2009-10-31T16:27:23.423

@Molly, I wonder if the Registry indeed works for all network adapters? I would expect (but I am no expert) that the adapter's driver must provide some means to change it. If it doesn't: no luck with any method. If it does, then why wouldn't Windows provide an input field in its device manager? – Arjan – 2009-11-01T07:33:06.700

Is it possible to change my MAC address?

in a word, yes.

Here's a tutorial for Windows:

Change MAC Address or Physical Address Using Registry Editor (regedit) in Windows

Molly7244

Posted 2009-10-31T15:37:40.123

Reputation:

It is operating system dependent, but there are built in mechanisms in Linux to do this and easily used third party tools to do it in Windows.

It is possible, because that address is included in packets that are sent out through the TCP/IP stack, the software will spoof the address in the stack before they leave the host.

If you post your OS, you can get an exact answer on how to do it.

MDMarra

Posted 2009-10-31T15:37:40.123

Reputation: 19 580

1regedit.exe is not a "third party tool", is it? – user1686 – 2009-10-31T16:15:37.693