Last revision July 3, 2007
This page describes how to determine the ethernet hardware address for certain legacy operating systems that are no longer supported on the Earth Sciences network. Please note that the older Windows operating systems are not even allowed on the Earth Sciences network because they have serious security flaws that will never be fixed.
To determine the ethernet hardware address on a computer running "Classic" MacOS, you must first connect it to an active network jack. Unless the ethernet driver can sense that it is connected to an active network, it will not report the hardware address.
Next open the TCP/IP control panel. Select Get Info from the File menu. A dialog box will appear that reports your ethernet hardware address. It also reports your TCP/IP control panel version; if it is less than 1.1.2, you should upgrade.
(Very old Macs running system 6 or 7 may still be using the MacTCP control panel instead of TCP/IP. If that applies to you, open the MacTCP control panel. While holding down the OPTION key, click on the Ethernet icon. It should display the hardware address below the icon.)
Run the winipcfg program from the Run item in the Start menu. When the winipcfg window appears, make sure that the actual ethernet adapter is selected in the drop-down menu at the top. Sometimes, this menu will start with the PPP adapter, and you have to select the real ethernet adapter from the menu. The Adapter Address listed on the next line is your ethernet hardware address.
If you see the address 44:45:53:54:00:00 you are looking at a pseudo-address for using PPP over a modem connection; you need to select the actual ethernet adapter. If you have a Sony laptop and see the address 08:00:46:02:22:f0, you are looking at a pseudo-address for the ilink firewire interface; you need to select the actual ethernet adapter.
First, open a command-line (DOS-style) window to type commands by running the cmd program from the Run item in the Start menu. Inside the command-line window that it opens, type the command ipconfig /all and press the RETURN key. The value reported in the Physical Address line is your ethernet hardware address.