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How to Change MAC Address of any device

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How to Change MAC Address of any device

In this article we will show you how to Change MAC Address of any device. Every device connected to a network is given a unique number called a MAC address. Even though the MAC address is always the same, there are times when you may want to change it on your device. For example, you can change your device’s MAC address to hide your identity or fix problems with how well it works with a network. A MAC address is a unique number that is tied to the network adapter hardware in your computer.

Sometimes, your MAC address could make it hard for you to connect to the internet. For example, you may have changed the hardware on your device and need to tell your ISP about the new MAC address. Your MAC address could be changed, which would be a simpler solution. One of the most important parts of wireless communication between devices is the MAC address. It is a number that is given to hardware like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet that connects to a network. Because of this, you can send the packets to the right device. Here re are the steps how to Change MAC Address of any device.

1. How to Change MAC Address in Windows

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How to Change MAC Address of any device

On Windows, you can use the system’s graphical user interface (GUI) to change a MAC address, which you can’t do on macOS. There are even a few other ways to do it, but for this guide, we’ll just use the GUI method, which is the easiest to understand.

  1. Open Device Manager.
  2. Click Start in Windows and type Device Manager. On Windows 10 and Windows 11, press the Windows + X keys to open the Quick Access menu. Then, from the list, choose Device Manager.
  3. In the Device Manager window, click on Network adapters, right-click on the interface whose MAC address you want to change, and choose Properties.
  4. Go to the Advanced tab of the network adapter’s properties and choose the Network Address property from the list.
  5. Choose the “Value” option on the right and type in the MAC address you want to use. You can make a MAC address with online tools like MiniWebtool if you don’t already have one.
  6. Select OK.
  7. To use your MAC changes on your Windows computer, you need to restart it.

2. How to Change MAC Address of Mac

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  1. First, click the Apple logo in the upper left corner and then click System Preferences. Find Network and click on it. Click the Advanced button near the bottom of the next window.
  2. Look for the Wi-Fi MAC Address part on the next screen to see your current MAC address. You can leave this window open for the rest of the tutorial, or you can write down or make a note of the MAC address.
  3. Next, click the Apple logo in the upper left corner and hold Options (Alt) while you click System Information. When the window opens, click Network on the left side.
  4. Your Wi-Fi adapter will be on the next page. Under BSD Device Name, you can find the name of your network adapter. Mine was en0.
  5. We have everything we need to make this work now that we know your current MAC address and network adapter name.
  6. Next, take your Mac off the network, but don’t turn off the adapter. For example, if you’re connected to Wi-Fi, disconnect from it but don’t turn it off completely.
  7. Launchpad, then look for Terminal. When you find it, open it.
  8. Next, type sudo ifconfig ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and hit enter. In this command, replace with the name you found in the steps above, and replace xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx with the MAC address you want. Look at the picture above to see what we did.

3. How to Change MAC Address in Linux

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  1. Macchanger is a Linux program that lets a user change the default MAC address of their device. It is run from the terminal. To get it to work on Debian or Ubuntu:
    • sudo apt install macchanger
  2. On Fedora, CentOS, and other distros that are based on RHEL:
    • sudo dnf install macchanger
      sudo yum install macchanger
  3. To put macchanger on Arch Linux, you need to:
    • sudo pacman -S macchanger
  4. Every time you restart a network device, like ethernet or Wi-Fi, you will be asked if you want to change your system’s MAC address. Choose “No” and press “Enter” to move on.
  5. First, you need to check the names of the network interfaces on your device before you can do anything else. To do this, just type:
    • ip addr
  6. If the labels are different on your system, it’s easy to find the names of the network interfaces. Wi-Fi interface names will always start with “w,” while Ethernet interface names will always start with “e.”
  7. To find out where your computer is right now, type:
    • macchanger -s interface
  8. Where interface is the name of the network interface you want information about.
  9. Use the -r flag with macchanger to give your machine a random MAC address:
    • macchanger -r interface
  10. You can give your device a random address, but you can also set a custom MAC address. Just add the -m flag to the default command like this:
    • sudo macchanger -m
  11. Custom-address interface, where custom-address is the new MAC address you want to give and interface is the name of the network interface.
  12. To give the eth0 interface a custom MAC address, do the following:
    • sudo MacChange -m 44:ee:bc:6c:76:ba eth0
  13. You don’t have to remember your device’s original MAC address if you use macchanger. Using the -p flag, it’s easy to put the changes back to their original state:
    • sudo macchanger -p eth0

4. How to Change MAC Address on Android

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  1. First, you have to “root” your phone. Each phone has a different way to do this, so look up your phone model on Google, carefully follow the steps, and then come back here when you’re done.
  2. You will also have to set up Busybox. We like BusyBox (Google Play) and BusyBox for Android (Google Play).
  3. You’ll then need Change My MAC (Google Play).
  4. Once the app is installed, open it and give it superuser rights.
  5. From there, use the app to figure out what to do next. You will be able to choose your own MAC address or make it random.
  6. To go back, you just need to turn off and then back on your Wi-Fi. If you have Android 10 or later, it will go back to its default MAC address or a different random one.

5. How to Change MAC Address on iPhone

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  1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
  2. Click Wi-Fi.
  3. Click the small blue “i” next to the network you’re connected to.
  4. Find the Private Address switch on the next page.
  5. When you turn on Private Address, your MAC address is changed. When it’s turned off, it stops the MAC address from being changed.
  6. When you turn off Private Address, you’ll get a warning that your MAC address will no longer be private when you rejoin the network. Click the “Join” button to keep going.
  7. When you turn on Private Address, you’ll see a different window telling you that you’ll rejoin the network with a private address. Click Join to keep going.

FAQs

Can we change the MAC address of a device?

A network interface controller (NIC) with a hard-coded MAC address cannot be changed. But many drivers let you change the MAC address. There are also tools that can trick an operating system into thinking that the NIC has any MAC address the user wants.

Does VPN change MAC address?

Does a VPN hide the MAC address of the WiFi? No, a VPN doesn’t hide the MAC address, but it doesn’t need to because this information isn’t sent through the TCP/IP stack. If you really want to hide your real MAC address, you can just spoof it using one of the above methods. How to connect to a VPN.

Why is changing MAC address bad?

Don’t use if you don’t want to. Changing the MAC address can be bad, especially if you use the same device on another network that uses MAC address filtering. If you change the MAC address, you might be locked out of that network.

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