Changing your MAC address for fun
So, I frequently work out of cafes and such (ah, the life of a noble startup employee). A lot of these cafes provide free internet, but impose time limits. So they use some cheesy filtering that locks out your internet access after more than a few hours of use. On a hunch, I figured whatever router they're using probably uses some sort of MAC address filtering.
I changed my MAC address and just like that, I was able to access the internet again! How do you do that?
1.) If you're already connected to a network, open up Airport and click "Join Other Network". Then enter in some random gibberish for an SSID. (You want the airport to be active, but not connected to anything).
2.) Click cancel, you should now not be on a network
3.) Open up terminal and type in: " ifconfig en1 | grep ether"
4.) Some string will be returned that looks like this:
ether 00:11:a1:2b:3c:d4
This is your airport adapter's MAC address. You'll probably want to write this down so you can change it back when you're done. (Otherwise, to change your MAC address back to default settings, you'll need to reboot your computer).
5.) Now, run the following command and modify the MAC address string to something else. For example:
sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:11:a1:b2:3c:d5
You'll be prompted for your password, enter it and your MAC address should now be updated. You can run "ifconfig en1 | grep ether" to confirm.
6.) Join a network and you should be good to go!
This is also a great trick to use at Starbucks, since all iPhone's have free AT&T wifi. First, connect to the wifi network with your iPhone. Then clone your MBP's MAC address with that of your iPhone. Click connect, and you're good to go!
So, I frequently work out of cafes and such (ah, the life of a noble startup employee). A lot of these cafes provide free internet, but impose time limits. So they use some cheesy filtering that locks out your internet access after more than a few hours of use. On a hunch, I figured whatever router they're using probably uses some sort of MAC address filtering.
I changed my MAC address and just like that, I was able to access the internet again! How do you do that?
1.) If you're already connected to a network, open up Airport and click "Join Other Network". Then enter in some random gibberish for an SSID. (You want the airport to be active, but not connected to anything).
2.) Click cancel, you should now not be on a network
3.) Open up terminal and type in: " ifconfig en1 | grep ether"
4.) Some string will be returned that looks like this:
ether 00:11:a1:2b:3c:d4
This is your airport adapter's MAC address. You'll probably want to write this down so you can change it back when you're done. (Otherwise, to change your MAC address back to default settings, you'll need to reboot your computer).
5.) Now, run the following command and modify the MAC address string to something else. For example:
sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:11:a1:b2:3c:d5
You'll be prompted for your password, enter it and your MAC address should now be updated. You can run "ifconfig en1 | grep ether" to confirm.
6.) Join a network and you should be good to go!
This is also a great trick to use at Starbucks, since all iPhone's have free AT&T wifi. First, connect to the wifi network with your iPhone. Then clone your MBP's MAC address with that of your iPhone. Click connect, and you're good to go!
