finding MAC address

JP Mulvano

Don't know if this is the correct place or not, but anyways.

jsut wondering if anyone knows an easy way of finding the MAC address of a Printer. I know you can get it from the print menu but is there a way with the IP address that you can find the MAC address remotely?

Any help is appreciated.

degsie

Your pc will have a 'arp' cache entry for all the IP addresses it has recently communicated with. Go to the dos prompt and type 'arp -a' (no quotes!) arp you will see a list of ip addresses and the corresponding mac address. Hope this helps

JP Mulvano

Yeah tried that already but all it ever does is return my IP address and MAC address.

Thanks anyways.

Keyzer

Type nbtstat - a ip address

from a command prompt of course...

degsie

Hmmm. the arp cache gets purged often...Try pinging the printer and then do the arp-a command and see. If you have a router between you and the printer be aware that you will only see the arp entry for that router!

Keyzer

Keyzer wrote:

Type nbtstat - a ip address

from a command prompt of course...

Not to be a smartass but forget all these other commands

Type nbtstat - a ip address

Try it out yourselves...

nbtstat -a 9.161.60.233

Local Area Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [9.161.60.233] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

Name Type Status

---

XXXXXXX <00> UNIQUE Registered
XXXXXXX <00> GROUP Registered
XXXXXXX <20> UNIQUE Registered
XXXXXXX <1E> GROUP Registered
xPaul L.....kz+<58> UNIQUE Registered
xPaul $.....kz+<58> UNIQUE Registered

MAC Address = 00-09-6B-7A-C0-58

degsie

using nbstat assumes you have netbios protocol installed....

Keyzer

Ok, original poster, are you using a windows based platform and do you have netbios installed? If so, then my solution will work for you.

elvis2002

Mac has a netstat function too.

degsie

If you mean that netstat has a MAC function I can't see it!!!

Capt'n Midnight

if the printer is a recent Network printer you should be able to telnet or http:// into it's IP address. Then use APR -a to list it.

ping 192.168.0.255 -n 20
arp -a

this should list many of the MAC's on the local lan - some devices may not respond

actually if you print directly to the printer and not via a print queue on the server you could simply sent a test page and check the arp cache.

note: you can only find mac address on your local lan with ARP.


Nbtstat - found this very erratic on some XP machines and some security settings block some replies..