How to Change the Network MAC Address on Ubuntu Linux - macchanger

A Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment. MAC addresses are used for numerous network technologies. Logically, MAC addresses are used in the Media Access Control protocol sub-layer of the OSI reference model.

MAC addresses are most often assigned by the manufacturer of a network interface card (NIC) and are stored in its hardware, the card's read-only memory, or some other firmware mechanism. If assigned by the manufacturer, a MAC address usually encodes the manufacturer's registered identification number and may be referred to as the burned-in address. It may also be known as an Ethernet hardware address (EHA), hardware address or physical address. A network node may have multiple NICs and will then have one unique MAC address per NIC.

MACChanger is a GNU/Linux utility for viewing/manipulating the MAC addresses of network interfaces. It can set specific, random, vendor-based (with a 6600+ vendor list), and device-type-based MACs.

MACChanger Features:
 * Set specific MAC address of a network interface
 * Set the MAC randomly
 * Set a MAC of another vendor
 * Set another MAC of the same vendor
 * Set a MAC of the same kind (eg: wireless card)
 * Display a vendor MAC list (today, 6800 items) to choose from

Finding MAC address under Ubuntu Linux:
Go to terminal and type following command:

sudo ifconfig -a

From the output, find eth0 (this is the default first Ethernet adapter)
Locate the number next to the HWaddr. This is your MAC address
The MAC Address will be displayed in the form of 88:1f:be:8a:85:73.

nikesh@poison:~$ sudo ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 88:1f:be:8a:85:73 
          inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:feab:daca/64 Scope:Link
          ..........

Installaing MACChanger:
Go to terminal and type following command:

sudo apt-get install macchanger

Using MACChanger:
Below pic shows the various use to MACChanger, looks more at the MACChanger man pages for more detail options.