Change MAC ADDRESS on MACBOOK

Try this:

1. obtain your current MAC address using the following command: ifconfig en0 | grep ether
2. this will return for example: ether 00:0a:27:8d:7b:24
3. change your MAC address to use 25 instead of 24 at the end by using the following command: sudo ifconfig en0 lladdr 00:0a:27:8d:7b:25
4. confirm the MAC address has changed by using the same command (as in step 1) again: ifconfig en0 | grep ether
5. this should now return: ether 00:0a:27:8d:7b:25

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Let me know if it works (I'm at work using a pc, not a mac so I can't try it out here)

Note though that this change is not permanent and you would need to do this every time you want to change your MAC address. You could create a shell script or something for it though. for example (using the example above) in terminal:

echo '#!/bin/sh' > change_mac
echo 'sudo ifconfig en0 lladdr 00:0a:27:8d:7b:25' >> change_mac
chmod gou+rx change_mac

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now you can run the change_mac script everytime you need to change your mac.

./change_mac

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...or put it on your desktop or something

You cannot permanently change the MAC address of your NIC in your Mac.
You can change it temporarily, but it will be gone after a reboot.

I suggest either getting a router to place between you and the University network, or switching to wired/wireless.

Airport interface is en1.

Hmm... I'll give it a try when I get home

Confirmation, it doesn't work on my MBP.

moto21 said:

Hey I need your help. I got banned from Campus because I treid to solve a email problem on my Macbook (couldnt sent mails on port 25 or 587) and did a Portscan. Bad idea beacuse its seen as an attack on the Uni network and so I was banned with this MAC Address. The guy behind the counter told me that its just the Computer but NOT the USER who is banned, so he told me to get a new MAC Address. I have tried "sudo ifconfig ether" and "lladdr" but both didnt work (either with airport down or up).

I wasnt to sure about tinkering with the driver as explained here:http://www.suspekt.org because my driver hex are a bit different...

Mac Os X 10.4.8
Macbook 2 Ghz


Thank you!

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You can't dispute the ban? Completely silly for the guy to tell you just to get a new MAC address.

Your other option would be to hope something goes wrong with the logic board on your macbook so Apple has to replace it!

Actually, it does work for en0 (LAN) but it does not work for en1 (Airport).

If you could connect to the LAN you will be able to spoof your MAC address...

Earlier, I tried it on my MBP for en0 and it didn't work.

I am reading that suspekt.org site you mentioned before and when I read that I'm getting the impression that MAC spoofing is disabled by default in Apple's drivers :S But I guess your already figured that

moto21 said:

(BTW: If I change the MAC Address in Windows, will it be changed in OS X too?????)

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nope, a MAC address is stored in hardware. If you spoof it in Windows it will be your original value after reboot. However, if you change your driver you could make it permanent. I would prefer being able to use ifconfig though...

Appearantly the Aiport card / driver does not support 'Passive Mode'; appearantly Kismac comes with a driver that enables it. Perhaps there is your solution?

if you're desperate enough, pop open the MacBook, pop out the old Airport Extreme Card, and buy a new one, sell the old one 'cause it still works. You'll lose a bit of cash, but it'll be a permanent solution. (unless they made the airport integrated with the logic board, in which case it would be much more difficult

I would go ahead and draft an appeal to send to the sysadmins. Getting your MAC address reinstated would be the ideal solution.

Can anybody confirm whether or not the MB uses an actual airport extreme card?

Isn;t the MAC address stored on the wireless card? Does Apple sell replacement cards

moto21 said:

And I got to admit: I wouldn't have a chance if they would take the time to analyse the data streams sent over the Uni Network. I know at least 3 occasions where I sent some Music to mates... How should I prove that those are ripped from my cds bach home???

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I'm not a network admin, but I hightly doubt that they keep logs that detailed, that they know the exact type of data that has been transferred from one user to the other, let alone filenames and whether it is legit or not. Unless you really were doing something untoward, then I would simply tell them exactly what you were doing, and I'm sure they will have no problem with reinstating you, or putting the MAC on probation or something. You have nothing to lose in asking.

Passante said:

Isn;t the MAC address stored on the wireless card? Does Apple sell replacement cards

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True, but not all of Apple's machines use the actual Airport Extreme card sold in stores. We haven't gotten a clear answer yet whether or not this is the case with the MB.

IF you need to do something this extreme, here's detailed instructions on how to replace the AP Extreme card.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook/Airport-Card

How to spoof the mac address of the wireless card

With a program called MacSpoofer you can easily change the mac address of any network device (Including the wireless device) from the "System Preference". Download it from www.macspoofer.com

Not pretty but have you tried looking into an external USB ethernet/wireless adaptor? If available, they can't be that expensive.

bigjobby said:

Not pretty but have you tried looking into an external USB ethernet/wireless adaptor? If available, they can't be that expensive.

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This thread is 4 years old now. I'm sure the OP has moved on.

Step 1: facepalm yourself.

Moving on, port scanning isn't an attack, it is usually used as a pre-attack so that's why they were a bit miffed. You shouldn't do things you have zero knowledge in. Also, what "guy behind the counter" told you this? Go to the IT department and explain what the issue was. They will be irritated but should remove your MAC address from the blacklist. They'll probably put you on some sort of "probation". Just don't do anything...er..."misinformed" at your school again and you should be fine. If they want to argue about it, they can always look at your MAC address for themselves if you take your computer in, check your student ID at the same time just to be sure you aren't covering for some spammer, hacker, etc.

In short, banning a MAC address is NOT permanent and they CAN undo it, but maybe they just don't like you. Sounds like I wouldn't do it either. You googled a few things and thought you could best their IT professionals, very very irritating.

Edit: before any of you ask: M.S. Information Security