Each network-connected device — laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and everything else — has an IP address on the network and a unique MAC address. There are many reasons you might need to find this information, so here’s how to find it on all the laptops, smartphones, and tablets you might have lying around.
This will just show you an individual device’s IP address. You’re probably behind a router on your network, so your public IP address — your IP address on the Internet — is different and must be found elsewhere.
Windows 10
On Windows 10, you can find this information more quickly than you could on previous versions of Windows. Click the Wi-Fi icon in the notification area, or system tray, and then click the “Network settings” link.
If it’s not a Wi-FI connection, you can open the Settings app, select “Network & Internet, select the type of connection it is, and look for more information.
Click “Advanced options” in the window that appears. (You can also reach this window by opening the Settings app and navigating to Network & Internet > Wi-Fi.) Scroll down and you’ll see this information under the Properties heading.
Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10
You can find this information in other ways on previous versions of Windows. Of course, these methods still work on Windows 10, too.
Just open the Control Panel, click “View network status and tasks” under Network and Internet, click “Change adapter settings”, right-click the connection you’re using, and select “Status”. Click the “Details” button under Connection and you’ll see all the information you need to know in a list.
You can also find this information by opening a Command Prompt window and running the following command:
ipconfig
Mac OS X
The easiest, quickest way to find this information on Mac OS X is to hold down the “Option” key on your keyboard and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menu bar at the top of your screen. The Option key enables quick access to status information elsewhere in Mac OS X, too.
You’ll see your Mac’s IP address next to “IP address.” Other details here will show you information about your wireless network and your router’s IP address.
You can also find this information by clicking the Apple menu on the menu bar at the top of your screen, selecting “System Preferences”, clicking the “Network” icon, selecting the network connection, clicking “Advanced”, and clicking the “TCP/IP” tab. You’ll find the MAC address under the “Hardware” tab.
iPhone and iPad
To find this information on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running Apple’s iOS, first open the Settings app. In the Settings app, tap “Wi-Fi” and then tap the “i” icon to the right of the Wi-Fi connection you’re currently connected to. You’ll see the IP address and other network details here.
To instead find the MAC address, navigate to General > About in the Settings app. Scroll down and look at the “Wi-Fi Address”.
Android
On Android, you can find this information in the Settings app. Pull down from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon or open your app drawer and tap the “Settings” app icon to open it.
Tap the “Wi-Fi” option under Wireless & networks, tap the menu button, and tap “Advanced” to open the Advanced Wi-Fi screen. You’ll find the IP address and MAC address displayed at the bottom of this page.
As always on Android, these options may be in a slightly different place depending on how your manufacturer customized your device. The above process was performed on a Nexus 7 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Chrome OS
On a Chromebook, Chromebox, or any other device running Chrome OS, you can find this in the Settings screen.
The quickest way to access this information is to click the status area at the bottom-right corner of your screen, click the “Connected to [Wi-Fi Network Name]” option in the list, and click the name of the network you’re connected to. A connection information page will open.
You could also open the Settings page by clicking the menu button in Chrome and selecting “Settings”. Click the name of the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to at the top of the Settings page, and then click it again. You’ll see the same page.
The MAC address is under the “Connection” tab, while the IP address is under the “Connection” Tab.
Linux
On a modern Linux system, this information should be easily accessible from the status or notification area. Look for a network icon, click it, and select “Connection Information”. You’ll see the IP address and other information here — the “hardware address” is the MAC address.
This is how NetworkManager does it, and most Linux distributions now use NetworkManager.
If you just have access to a terminal, run the following command. Ignore the “lo” interface, which is a local loopback interface. In the screenshot below, “eth0” is the network connection to look at.
ifconfig
The process is similar on other devices, from game consoles to set top boxes. YOu should be able to open the Settings screen and look for a “Status” screen that displays this information, a “Network” screen that might show network connection details somewhere, or a list of information on an “About” screen. If you can’t find these details, perform a web search for your specific device.