Changing the Network Card's MAC Address


Published: Oct 16, 2002 Updated: Oct 16, 2002 Section: Network Security Library :: Unix Security :: Linux LAN & Internet Firewall Security FAQ Author: Printable Version Adjust font size: Rating: 4.1/5 - 14 Votes 1 2 3 4 5

Few people should expect to need to do this, but it's convenient if you do have the need.

If your MAC address is registered with your ISP, as some ISPs require, then you can't simply replace your ethernet card or move the modem from a different home computer over to a Linux machine. Some people prefer to leave a Windows or Macintosh machine connected directly to the internet while they get their Linux machine set up, and then temporarily move the modem when they're ready to test things out.

You can configure your ethernet card to respond to a different MAC address with the ifconfig command:



/sbin/ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:00

In this case, the external interface is eth0. The MAC address argument is the address you want the card to respond to instead of it's hardware-encoded address.