Your router will then assign you an IP address and let you connect to the internet.įinding your MAC address manually is easy. When it detects a router, your device sends its MAC address through to form a connection. MAC addresses are also sometimes called physical, burned-in or hardware addresses.Ī MAC address is essential for successful interaction between local network devices. The NIC manufacturer provides each card with a unique MAC address. But while IP addresses change constantly, MAC addresses are static because they are only used in the local network.Įvery connected device has a network interface card (NIC) that allows it to connect to a network. As IP addresses identify a network connection, MAC addresses identify hardware.

We need these addresses to be able to connect to the internet to send or receive data. The MAC address is assigned to a network interface card that every connected device has. MAC addresses consist of 12 characters grouped into six pairs, for example 0A:1B:2C:3A:44:5C. And if you make your device forget the network, it will also forget the private address it used with that network, unless it has been less than two weeks since the last time it was made to forget that network.MAC (short for “media access control”) address is a series of numbers and letters that identify a network device.

Starting with iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8, if your device hasn’t joined the network in six weeks, it will use a different private address the next time it connects to that network.

If you erase all content and settings or reset network settings on the device, your device will use a different private address the next time it connects to that network.

In some cases, your device will change its private Wi-Fi address:

This unique MAC address is your device’s private Wi-Fi address, which it will only use for that network. Starting with iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7, your device will improve privacy by using a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network. This allows a kind of user tracking or profiling, and it applies to all devices on all Wi-Fi networks. If the device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC address across all networks, network providers and other network observers can more easily relate that address to the device's network activity and location over time. To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device must identify itself to the network using a unique network address called a Media Access Control (MAC) address.

What is my mac address iphone