Whatever the reason be, Linux tools have got you covered. Maybe you want to bypass security restrictions on a network, or maybe you wish to imitate another device on the network to capture packets. To figure out the address for your Mac, hold down the Option key and click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar.There are loads of reasons why you might want to change your device's MAC address. Now, let’s get to work: 1) Determine the name of the Wi-Fi interface on your Macĭepending on the Mac you’re using, the Wi-Fi interface can have one of several names, usually en0 or en1. If you feel uncomfortable using Terminal, then you may wish to either pass on spoofing your MAC address or use the WiFiSpoof app outlined at the end of this post. The following instructions assume that you have some knowledge of and experience with the macOS Terminal app. This change was made to iOS by Apple in 2014. It’s interesting to note that iOS automatically delivers a random MAC address to Wi-Fi networks exactly for the purpose of preventing user tracking. If you do not wish to have your computer tracked by MAC address, spoofing can show a different MAC address every time you log onto a network. In other words, this is used to protect your privacy.

The primary reason for MAC spoofing is to mask your identity. Should you need to run that software on a new Mac or one in which the Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) card has been replaced, spoofing is required in order to make the software believe you’re using the original computer. Next, some software can only be installed and run on systems with a pre-defined MAC address. By spoofing the MAC address to the address that was registered by the ISP, a user can work around the ISP limitation. When you wish to connect a new device to your network, the ISP may not grant access to a device with a different MAC address than those already registered to the ISP.

MAC spoofing means that you’re changing a computer’s identity and it can be done for a number of reasons.įirst, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) want to register a client computer’s MAC address for service and billing services. This is a technique for changing the factory-assigned physical Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network interface on a networked device to a random address. In this article, we’ll show you how to spoof a MAC address on a macOS computer running High Sierra.

Mac address spoofing windows 10