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How would you communicate with a device when you don’t have the IP?

You might be in a situation where you don’t have the IP address of a device in a local network, but all you have is records of the MAC or hardware address.

Type 'arp -a' in the command prompt. This lists a number of MAC addresses with the associated IP addresses. Since you have the MAC address, scroll down the list to find the associated IP address. The MAC address is shown in the 'Physical Address' column with the IP address in the 'Internet Address' column. An example of a table record is in Step 4. The IP address is usually displayed beside last inet, however, this command does not work on macOS High Sierra. Back to Table of Contents Find your external IP address. To find your external IP address, there are two easy methods that work on all versions of the Mac operating system. First, open Google and Type IP in search. This will display.

MAC Address and OUI Lookup NEW: If you want to perform multiple MAC address lookups, you may register with aruljohn.com and perform bulk MAC address lookups. This program displays the name of the company that manufactured your network card.

Or your computer is unable to display its IP due to various reasons, and you are getting a “No Valid IP Address” error.

Finding the IP from a known MAC address should be the task of a ReverseARP application, the counterpart of ARP.

But RARP is an obsolete protocol with many disadvantages, so it was quickly replaced by other protocols like BOOTP and DHCP, which deal directly with IP addresses.

In this article, we’ll show you how to find IPs and device vendors using MAC addresses with different methods for free.

Understanding ARP

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is the protocol in charge of finding MAC addresses with IPs in local network segments.

It operates with frames on the data link layer.

As you might already know, devices in the data link layer depend on MAC addresses for their communication.

Their frames encapsulate packets that contain IP address information.

A device must know the destination MAC address to communicate locally through media types like Ethernet or Wifi, in layer 2 of the OSI model.

Understanding how ARP works can help you find IPs and MAC addresses quickly.

The following message flow diagram can help you understand the concept:

  1. The local computer sends a ping (ICMP echo request) to a destination IP address (remote computer) within the same segment. Unfortunately, the local computer does not know the MAC address… it only knows the IP address.
  2. The destination hardware address is unknown, so the ICMP echo request is put on hold. The local computer only knows its source/destination IP and its source MAC addresses. ARP uses two types of messages, ARP Request and Reply.

The local computer sends an ARP REQUEST message to find the owner of the IP address in question.

This message is sent to all devices within the same segment or LAN through a broadcast MAC (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) as the destination.

  1. Because the remote computer is part of the same network segment, it receives the broadcast message sent by the local computer. All other computers in the LAN also receive the broadcast but they know that the destination IP is not theirs, so they discard the packet. Only the remote computer with destination IP, responds to the ARP REQUEST with an ARP REPLY, which contains the target MAC address.
  2. The local computer receives the ARP REPLY with the MAC address. It then resumes the ICMP echo request, and finally, the remote computer responds with an ICMP echo reply.

Finding IPs with ARP

You can use ARP to obtain an IP from a known MAC address.

But first, it is important to update your local ARP table in order to get information from all devices in the network.

Send a ping (ICMP echo reply) to the entire LAN, to get all the MAC entries on the table.

To ping the entire LAN, you can send a broadcast to your network.

Open the Command Prompt in Windows or terminal in macOS and type.

ping 192.168.0.255

My subnet is 192.168.0.0/24 (mask of 255.255.255.0), so the broadcast address is 192.168.0.255 which can be calculated or found with a “Print Route” command in Windows or a “netstat -nr” in macOS. Or can also be obtained with a subnet calculator.

For Windows:

Step 1.

  • Open the CMD (Command Prompt)
  • Go to the “Start” menu and select “Run” or press (Windows key + R) to open the Run application
  • In the “Open” textbox type “cmd” and press “Ok”.

This will open the command-line interface in Windows.

Step 2.

  • Enter the “arp” command.
  • The arp command without any additional arguments will give you a list of options that you can use.

Step 3.

  • Use the arp with additional arguments to find the IP within the same network segment.
  • With the command “arp -a” you can see the ARP table and its entries recently populated by your computer with the broadcast ping.

Step 4.

  • Reading the output.
  • The information displayed in the arp-a is basically the ARP table on your computer.
  • It shows a list with IP addresses, their corresponding physical address (or MAC), and the type of allocation (dynamic or static).

Let’s say you have the MAC address 60-30-d4-76-b8-c8 (which is a macOS device) and you want to know the IP.

From the results shown above, you can map the MAC address to the IP address in the same line.

The IP Address is 192.168.0.102 (which is in the same network segment) belongs to 60-30-d4-76-b8-c8.

You can forget about those 224.0.0.x and 239.0.0.x addresses, as they are multicast IPs.

For macOS:

Step 1:

  • Open the Terminal App. go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal or Launchpad > Other > Terminal.

Step 2:

  • Enter the “arp” command with an “-a” flag.
  • Once you enter the command “arp -a” you’ll receive a list with all ARP entries to the ARP Table in your computer.
  • The output will show a line with the IP address followed by the MAC address, the interface, and the allocation type (dynamic/static).

Finding IPs with the DHCP Server

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is the network protocol used by TCP/IP to dynamically allocate IP addresses and other characteristics to devices in a network.

The DHCP works with a client/server mode.

The DHCP server is the device in charge of assigning IP addresses in a network, and the client is usually your computer.

For home networks or LANs, the DHCP Server is typically a router or gateway.

If you have access to the DHCP Server, you can view all relationships with IPs, MACs, interfaces, name of the device, and lease time in your LAN.

Step 1.

  • Log into the DHCP Server. In this example, the DHCP server is the home gateway.
  • If you don’t know the IP address of your DHCP Server/ Gateway, you can run an ipconfig (in Windows) or ifconfig (in macOS/Linux).
  • This particular DHCP Server/Gateway has a web interface.

Step 2.

  • Enter the IP address on the search bar of the web browser, and input the right credentials.

Step 3.

  • Find the DHCP Clients List.
  • In this TP-Link router, the DHCP Server functionality comes as an additional feature.
  • Go to DHCP > DHCP Clients List. From this list, you can see the mapping between MAC addresses and their assigned IPs.

Using Sniffers

If you couldn’t find the IP in the ARP list or unfortunately don’t have access to the DHCP Server, as a last resort, you can use a sniffer.

Packet sniffers or network analyzers like Nmap (or Zenmap which is the GUI version) are designed for network security.

They can help identify attacks and vulnerabilities in the network.

With Nmap, you can actively scan your entire network and find IPs, ports, protocols, MACs, etc.

If you are trying to find the IP from a known MAC with a sniffer like Nmap, look for the MAC address within the scan results.

How to find the Device and IP with a Sniffer?

Step 1.

  • Keep records of your network IP address information.
  • In this case, my network IP is 192.168.0.0/24. If you don’t know it, a quick “ipconfig” in Windows cmd or an “ifconfig” in macOS or Linux terminal can show you the local IP and mask.
  • If you can’t subnet, go online to a subnet calculator and find your network IP.

Step 2.

  • Download and open Nmap.
  • Download Nmap from this official link https://nmap.org/download.html and follow its straightforward installation process.

Step 3.

  • Open Nmap (or Zenmap) and use the command “sudo nmap -sn (network IP)” to scan the entire network (without port scan).
  • The command will list machines that respond to the Ping and will include their MAC address along with the vendor.
  • Don’t forget the “sudo” command.
  • Without it, you will not see MAC addresses.

Finding out the device vendor from a MAC address

Ok, so now you were able to find out the IP address using “arp -a” command or through the DHCP Server.

But what if you want to know more details about that particular device?

What vendor is it?

Your network segment or LAN might be full of different devices, from computers, firewalls, routers, mobiles, printers, TVs, etc.

And MAC addresses contain key information for knowing more details about each network device.

First, it is essential to understand the format of the MAC address.

Traditional MAC addresses are 48 bits represented in 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (or six octets).

The first half of the six octets represent the Organizational Unique Identifier (OUI) and the other half is the Network Interface Controller (NIC) which is unique for every device in the world.

There is not much we can do about the NIC, other than communicating with it.

But the OUI can give us useful information about the vendor if you didn’t use Nmap, which can also give you the hardware vendor.

A free online OUI lookup tool like Wireshark OUI Lookup can help you with this.

Just enter the MAC address on the OUI search, and the tool will look at the first three octets and correlate with its manufacturing database.

Final Words

Although the RARP (the counterpart of ARP) was specifically designed to find IPs from MAC addresses, it was quickly discontinued because it had many drawbacks.

RARP was quickly replaced by DHCP and BOOTP.

But ARP is still one of the core functions of the IP layer in the TCP/IP protocol stack.

It finds MAC addresses from known IPs, which is most common in today’s communications.

ARP works under the hood to keep a frequently used list of MACs and IPs.

But you can also use it to see the current mappings with the command arp -a.

Aside from ARP, you can also use DHCP to view IP information. DHCP Servers are usually in charge of IP assignments.

If you have access to the DHCP server, go into the DHCP Client list and identify the IP with the MAC address.

Finally, you can use a network sniffer like Nmap, scan your entire network, and find IPs, and MACs.

If you only want to know the vendor, an online OUI lookup like Wireshark can help you find it quickly.

By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: August 27, 2019

Ever wonder what IP address is? Do you know how you can find them on your Mac? Well if you are actually asking yourself “how to find my IP address on Mac”, then this article is for you.

Once that your Mac is connected to a network, then that will automatically be addressed on a network that is called the IP address. The IP Address is a set of four digits that are actually separated by periods. Each set is composed of three digits. And once that your Mac is connected to a certain network which includes the internet, that it will automatically have an internal IP address which allows it to mark on the certain location on the local network and also an external IP address which refers to the IP address of your internet network.

Part 1: Why is it Important to Know the IP Adress?

Getting to know your Mac’s IP address can actually come in handy especially if you are setting up a network or if you are going to share some files. That is why we are going to show you some ways on how you can find the both your external and internal IP address that you have on your Mac.

Every single device that we have that has the capability of connecting to the internet has its very own Internet Protocol or IP Address. This way, you will be able to find one computer among the different networks.

Part 2: Two Types of IP Address

There are actually two types of IP Address. One is the private IP address and the public IP address. The private IP address is known to be a part of the reusable pool that is set aside by the Internet Engineering Task Force for the individual network. These actually includes an address that begins with “10.”, “172.16.', and “192.168.”. These IP address that we have shown are only relevant to your corporate or to your local network.

And for you to be able to get in touch with other people, the IP address is needed and that your PC should be needing one public IP address. The IP address is considered to be globally unique for it to ensure that this is different from other devices.

Part 3: How to Find IP Address on Mac

So, with all the things being said, then it is time for us to show you on how you can find the IP address. There are actually many ways on how you can find your IP address and we are going to show you on how to do so.

Method #1: Finding Your Internal IP – OS X 10.5 and Newer Version

Step 1: Go ahead and click on the Apple icon located at the upper-left corner of the screen.

Step 2: After that, go ahead and scroll down and choose “System Preferences”.

Step 3: After that, go ahead and click on “Network” located on the third row of the icons shown on your screen.

Step 4: After that, go ahead and choose your connection. Usually, you will be able to be connected to a certain network using your AirPort which is the wireless one, or using your Ethernet which is the wired connection. You will be able to see there on your screen the word “Connected” beside it. And then, you will be able to see your IP address listed beneath you connection status.

Method #2: Finding your Internal IP – for OS X 10.4

Step 1: Go ahead and click on the Apple icon that is located at the upper left corner of your screen.

Step 2: And then, go ahead and look for System Preferences and select it.

Step 3: After that, go ahead and click on the “Network” icon located on the third row from the list.

Step 4: After that, go ahead and choose on your connection. From here, you will be able to choose the connection that you would want the IP address for from the Show drop-down menu. In case that you have a wired connection, all you need to do is to choose “Built-in Ethernet”. And if you are using a wireless connection, go ahead and select “AirPort”.

Step 5: And then, go ahead and click on the TCP/IP tab. From there, you will be able to see the IP address of your Mac.

Method #3: Finding Your Internal IP Address Via Terminal

Step 1: Go ahead and open the Terminal on Mac. You can find this from the utility section from the Application folder.

Step 2: After that, go ahead and enter the ifconfig command on Terminal. This way, you will be able to remove all the unnecessary things and that you will be able to show your IP address on your Mac. All you have to do is to enter this command.

ipconfig | grep “inet” | grep -v 127.0.0.1[2]

Once that you have this command on Terminal, it will automatically remove the “127.0.0.1” that will always appear on whatever device that you are using. This is called the feedback loop. You can ignore this if you are looking for your IP address.

Step 3: After that, go ahead and copy your IP address shown on your screen. Your IP address is the one beside the word “inet”.

Method #4: How to Find your External IP Address

Step 1: The first thing that you should do is to open your router’s configuration page. Keep in mind that all of the routers can be accessed using a web interface where you will be able to adjust your settings. All you have to do is to enter your router’s IP address on your browser. You can check on your router’s paper for its specific address. The most common ones are the following:

  • 192.168.1.1
  • 192.168.0.1
  • 192.168.2.1

Step 2: After that, go ahead and launch your router status. Keep in mind that the location of the external IP address will depend from router to router. Most of them have it listed in the Router Status or on its WAN

Step 3: And finally, go ahead and Google search “IP Address”. The very first result that will appear on your screen will be your external or your public IP address.

So, there you have it. These are the ways on how you can look for both your public and private IP Address on your Mac. You can use this for sharing your files and more.

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Part 4: Getting Your Mac Cleaned

Now that you have already know how you to find the IP address on your Mac, perhaps you are going to use it for you to share some files on your Mac with another person. Now, since that you are going to share files, you have to also consider the fact that your Mac’s storage space may run out. This is why it is better that you remove all the junks that you have in it.

There are actually a lot of ways on how you can clean up your Mac, but there is only one best way to do so. And this is by using the FoneDog PowerMyMac.

The FoneDog PowerMyMac is a tool that you can use for you to be able to clean up all the junk files that you have on your Mac. This way, you will be able to free up more of your storage space and as well as this will actually make your Mac faster.

The FoneDog PowerMyMac is considered to be as one of the best tools that you can for you to maintain your Mac. This is because the FoneDog PowerMyMac is an All-in-One Mac application. This tool can turn into something that you want it to be. It does not only come as a typical Mac Cleaner but it can also become an App uninstaller, performance monitor, a secret keeper, a file unarchive and a Wi-Fi sprite as well. All of that in just one tool.

Now, for you to know on how you can clean up all the junks that you have on your Mac, here is a simple and easy guide for you to follow.

Step 1: Download and Install

Go ahead and have the FoneDog PowerMyMac download from our official website. And once that you have downloaded it, go ahead and install it on your Mac.

Step 2: Launch the FoneDog PowerMyMac

Once that you have successfully installed the program on your Mac, go ahead and launch it. Now, go ahead and click on the “Status” option located at the top of the main interface of the FoneDog PowerMyMac.

From there, you will be able to see your Mac’s system status. You will be able to see their your CPU status, your available memory, and your hard disk of your Mac.

Step 3: Choose A Module

After that, go ahead and click on the “Cleaner” option from the top of your screen. Then the FoneDog PowerMyMac will show you all the modules that the PowerMyMac can do as a Mac cleaner. From the list of modules shown on your screen, go ahead and choose “System Junk”.

Step 4: Scan Your Mac’s System Junk

Then after that, go ahead and click on the “Scan” button. This way, the FoneDog PowerMyMac will then start for all the junks that you have on your Mac. This includes your system cache, your application cache, system logs, and a lot more. At the left side of your screen, you will be able to see there a circle which refers to the progress of the scanning process.

Step 5: Check Out The Result

Once that the scanning process is complete, go ahead and click on the “View” button. If you wish to have a re-scan of your junk files, then you can do so.

Step 6: Choose the File to Clean

After that, the FoneDog PowerMyMac will then show you a list of folders on your screen. You will be able to see System Cache, Application cache, System Logs, User Logs, and more. From there, go ahead and select the folder that you want to clean. On the right side of your screen, you will be able to see the data that each folder contains.

Step 7: Clean Your Junk

Once that you have chosen the folder that you want to delete, all you have to do now is to click on the “Clean” button. And once that you do, all of the unwanted files will all be gone from your Mac.

NOTE: There will be instances that you will be needing to enter your password to confirm the action.

Step 8: Cleaning Junk Successful

Search For Ip Address Mac

Once that you have confirmed on the cleaning process, then all you have do is to wait until the FoneDog PowerMyMac is done with the cleaning process. Once done, all your junks will then be gone from your Mac.

Part 5: Conclusion

Search For Ip Address Machine

So there you have it! Finding the IP address on your Mac is not as hard as it sounds. All you need to have is the right knowledge on how you can do so. And of course, always remember that there are two kinds of IP address that you have on your Mac. One is your private IP and the other one is your public IP. So depending on what you are looking for, the process may come differently.

Search For Ip Address Macbook

And of course, maintaining your Mac is also one of the most important things that you should do. And for you to do so, you will be needing a powerful tool that can help you in so many ways. This is no other than the FoneDog PowerMyMac.

This tool is not only a Mac cleaner, but it can do even more things that other tools cannot do. This is because the FoneDog PowerMyMac is considered to be an all-in-one tool. This tool can help you speed up your Mac and can make your Mac good as if you first bought it.

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