A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a unique, 12-character alphanumeric attribute that is used to identify individual electronic devices on a network. The MAC address for your device may be helpful when troubleshooting any networking issues that you encounter on that device.

  1. From the Apple Menu, open System Preferences...
  2. In the Internet & Wireless (Internet & Network in older versions) section, select the Network control panel.
  3. Select the desired network device in the list. This will typically be "Ethernet" for the wired Ethernet port or "AirPort" for the wireless network.
  4. Click the Advanced... button in the lower right corner.
  5. Select the Ethernet option.
  6. The value listed beside Ethernet ID: or AirPort ID: is the Hardware MAC Address for the selected network device. It will be in the format: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.