Top 4 Ways to Find and Use MAC Address of Android, iPhone, and PC

To begin with, MAC Address stands for Media Access Control Address. It is used as a unique identifier for your device on network interfaces such as wireless networks (Wi-Fi) and Ethernet connections. To break it down further: you know how network providers use your phone's IMEI number to identify your device on their networks, the MAC address performs the same function but for everything related to the Internet.

These MAC addresses are built-in or engraved addresses, and like IMEI numbers, two devices do not have the same MAC address. This is why they are a very effective way to identify devices on network interfaces. Their structure can become confusing.

In this article, we will explain some uses of MAC addresses for wireless network connectivity and how you can find the MAC addresses of your devices – mobile and PC.

Use of MAC addresses

MAC addresses are mainly used to identify devices connected to your home or work network. Although you can use device names to identify devices connected to your network, the MAC address is a more precise identifier.

Suppose you have two friends at home and their smartphones (iPhone X and OnePlus 7) are connected to your home Internet. Blocking one of them could be difficult as the two devices would not appear as iPhone X and OnePlus 7 on the admin panel of your router. Instead, they would be identified by a strange combination of 12 alphanumeric characters grouped in two by a colon or a hyphen.

So instead of seeing the iPhone X or OnePlus 7 on your router's dashboard, you will most likely see something like this: 23-78-98-A8-8P-6C or 75: 8A: 8B : 48: 12: 54. These are typical formats for MAC addresses.

Another case of using the MAC address is to unblock a device from your Wi-Fi network. If you have many devices that you have blacklisted from your home or internet office, setting whitelisting a device would be difficult if you don't know its MAC address.

Additionally, if you have a router that allows you to prioritize Internet traffic by device via Quality of Service (QoS) settings, it is also important to know the MAC address of your devices. Indeed, you can only add a device to the QoS rules or to the priority networks of your router using its MAC address.

Now that you know what a MAC address is, what it does, and how to use it, find out how to identify the MAC addresses of your mobile phone and computer.

MAC address lookup

1. How to find the MAC address on Android

Step 1: Launch the Settings menu on your device.

2nd step: Tap the "Network and Internet" option.

Step 3: Tap Wi-Fi.

Step 4: In the Wi-Fi settings menu, tap the name of the Wi-Fi device you are connected to. You can also tap on the gear icon.

Step 5: Press the Advance drop-down button.

You should see your device's MAC address (in the Network Details section).

2. How to find MAC address on Windows PC

Method 1

Step 1: Tap the Wi-Fi icon in the system tray / taskbar.

2nd step: On the network you are connected to, tap Properties.

Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the network settings page and under the Properties section, you should see your computer's Wi-Fi MAC address.

Method 2

Step 1: type cmd in your Windows search bar and press Command Prompt in the search result.

This launches the command prompt application in a new window.

2nd step: Type or paste this command ipconfig / all in the command prompt console and hit the enter button.

This will display a bunch of network configurations in the console.

Step 3: In the "Wi-Fi Wireless LAN Adapter" section, search for the physical address to see the Wi-Fi MAC address of your Windows computer.

3. How to find the MAC address on iPhone or iPad

Step 1: Launch the Settings menu on your iPhone or iPad.

2nd step: Tap General.

Step 3: Tap About.

Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the Wi-Fi address. This is the MAC address of your iOS device.

4. How to find the MAC address on the router's admin panel

You can also remotely check the MAC addresses of a device from the admin panel or dashboard of your Wi-Fi router.

Since there are several brands of routers, each with different configurations and settings, we cannot provide specific steps to verify MAC addresses on your router's admin panel. We recommend that you check the device management section of your router. You should find a few devices connected to your Wi-Fi next to their MAC addresses.

Note: We also recommend that you consult the instruction manual or online documentation of your router on the manufacturer's website to determine how to check the connected devices and their MAC addresses.