Learn how to spoof your MAC address with a MAC address hider.
Learn how to hide your MAC address (courtesy Christiaan Colen / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Apr 01, 2019 The necessity to hide your real IP address on your Mac is not a whim anymore. This is more of a question of responsible attitude towards your own privacy and online, freedom. Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your Mac device from spying eyes and get access to the beloved content (for legal purposes we assume). There are more than 100 alternatives to Hide My IP for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and Linux. The best alternative is Tor Browser, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Hide My IP are Tor (Free, Open Source), OpenVPN (Freemium, Open Source), ProtonVPN (Freemium, Open Source) and WireGuard.
Why learn to hide MAC address for your computer and protect your privacy? It is interesting to note how our Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) is increasingly under attack. A quick check on Wikipedia gives you a long list of over 20 different pieces of data which can be (and are) used to identify, locate, profile and target you.
Although it’s of scary, I guess we all have become used to the threat of our privacy being compromised. Long gone are the days when the only way persons were identified was by their face, fingerprints, or handwriting.
By the way, for cynics who may scoff at the need for privacy as simply an excuse to do illegal activities, they should know that there is a community of law-abiding citizens who do prefer privacy. In fact, what seems more unethical is that there is an entire industry ranging into the billions of dollars involving the sale and resale of our personal information – not to mention the wholesale spying of governments into every bit (literally) of our online data.
Our Privacy Under Increasing Attack
Our lives creep ever closer to what is depicted in futuristic dystopian movies. Check or yourself. Go to Facebook ads and check out how easily you can specifically target an audience. If this is the sort of targeting available to Joe and Jane Blo, imagine how specific the big & powerful players can target you? It’s no stretch to imagine they can target right down to the level of specific individuals.
You have probably noticed how Google can suggest a particular item for you to buy or when Facebook and LinkedIn suggest that you send a friend or connection request to a particular person. Of course, this is all just the tip of the iceberg.
As you become more informed, you will discover many more potential ways in which your privacy can be compromised or is already compromised—that is the reality. For starters, ensure that you read https://www.cogipas.com/top-10-essential-internet-privacy-tips/.
Tracking and Profiling is Getting More Sophisticated & Moving Away from IP Addresses
Most people know that the IP address of our devices can give away our location and a whole bunch of other information. That is just one important reason why we recommend using a trusted VPN service as a basic privacy measure.
- see What’s My IP Address?
However, another way in which individuals and their online activities can be identified is through the manipulation of the MAC address on their devices. The stark reality of this was highlighted by the famous whistle-blower Edward Snowden who disclosed that NSA tracks persons via their devices’ MAC addresses.
The startup company Renew tested this successfully by tracking mobile devices in and around London. This is why Apple has started introducing a system of generating random MAC addresses on their iOS devices.
What is a MAC Address?
The MAC acronym actually stands for Media Access Control. It is a unique identification code which is hard-wired or hard-coded into your computer’s and other mobile devices’ Network Interface Card (NIC) hardware. The NIC is needed by your devices when connecting to a network whether it is wired (Ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi). The MAC address is usually in the form of six sets of two-digit characters, separated by colons. A typical MAC address may look something like 00:0a:98:9d:65:16.
Please note that there is a different MAC address for each network interface. And so, a laptop computer that has an Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi radio will have different MAC addresses for the wired and the wireless network interfaces.
MAC addresses are 48 bits in length and the first 24 bits contain a unique set of characters known as the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) or vendor ID. This identifier or ID uniquely identifies the manufacturer of the networking hardware. The following are the OUI for some manufacturers:
Belkin: 00-30-BD
Cisco: 00-40-96
Dell: 00-14-22
Nortel: 00-04-DC
Some manufacturers of larger networking hardware may use more than one set of Organizationally Unique Identifiers (OUI).
With your MAC address, you become identifiable on a network. As a matter-of-fact, there are some schools and companies which require that persons accessing their wifi provide their MAC address. With that information (and, may I say, under normal conditions), network administrators can use MAC filtering and prevent unauthorised entry to their network even if the unwanted device was issued a different IP address by DHCP.
Network administrators also use MAC addresses for diagnosing network issues since they don’t change (under normal circumstances) in comparison to dynamic IP addresses which may change.
Can I Block my MAC address?
Well, the answer to this question may have a YES-NO kind of answer. As for the NO-part of the answer, every device on a network has to present a MAC address and so access to a MAC address cannot be blocked. The situation can be compared to the postal system. For persons to get their mail, they need to use an address. Without an address, the postman will not know where to leave a package. In a similar way, devices on a network have to present a MAC address so that their data packets can be routed to them. However, that MAC address need not be the original hard-coded MAC address that the device was manufactured with. And so, in this context, YES we can hide (or if you prefer block) our original MAC address by using another MAC address. This pseudo-MAC address may be a random one that is changed by the user or generated by computer software or it could be one that is spoofed from another device which has access to the network. In this way, a computer system may be manipulated so that the MAC address reported by the operating system does not match the permanent physical MAC address. This is beneficial for addressing privacy concerns when doing things like using a Wi-Fi hotspot.
IMPORTANT: This method of switching the MAC address is not permanent. The computer will restore the permanent physical MAC address after it is rebooted.
NOTE: Apart from the MAC address on your computer’s network adapters, there is also a MAC address for your router. Therefore, if you are operating your own home network, you may have to change your router’s MAC address as well as your computer’s MAC address. You will be able to change the MAC address on your router using your router’s web interface.
Software which can spoof your MAC Address
The following is a list of software tools which may be used to change your computer’s MAC address. The list includes tools for both Windows and Mac systems.
- Technitium MAC Address Changer https://technitium.com/tmac/
- NoVirusThanks MAC Address Changer http://www.novirusthanks.org/products/mac-address-changer/
- SMAC MAC Address Changer http://www.klcconsulting.net/smac/#Download
- Change MAC Address http://lizardsystems.com/change-mac-address/
- MacAppStuff Spoof MAC for Mac http://download.cnet.com/MacAppStuff-Spoof-MAC/3000-2144_4-75289372.html
- ChangeMAC for Mac http://download.cnet.com/ChangeMAC/3000-18508_4-169342.html
- MAC Change http://download.cnet.com/MAC-Change/3000-2085_4-10343579.html
Spoofing your MAC Address in Windows
Although there is software designed specifically to spoof MAC addresses, spoofing is possible without the use of additional software. It can be done safely within the Windows operating system — and it is legal too. The following sets out how you may spoof your MAC address within Windows — of course, you do so at your own risk.
STEP 1: Locate the Device Manager
For Windows 8.1 and higher, you may press Windows Key + X before clicking Device Manager.
For Windows 7, you may type “Device Manager” in the Search box which comes up when you press the Windows key. Click Device Manager or press enter to open the console.
STEP 2: Identify the network interface that you wish to modify or spoof.
Identify “Network Adapters” from the list of devices. Double-click it to reveal all available network interfaces. Right-click the one you wish to modify and then click Properties.
STEP 3: Change the MAC address
Open the Properties window, click the Advanced tab and then select Network Address from the options listed. If you don’t see this option then your network driver doesn’t have this feature.
Hide Ip Free Mac Address
Switch the option from “Not Present” to “Value”. You may see “0000000000” in the Value box. Remove this entry and then insert your new MAC address without any additional spaces or characters. Press OK.
Spoofing your MAC Address on Apple’s Mac OS X
Although the Mac OS X allows you to see the MAC address for each network interface via its System Preferences, it does not allow users to change it from that point. However, users may change it by using a single command.
Press Command + Space, type “Terminal”, and press the Enter key to open a Terminal window. You will need to run the command below. Remember to replace en0 with the correct network interface name and replace xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx with your desired MAC address.
sudo ifconfig en0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Generally speaking, the network interface will be en0 or en1 based on whether you are modifying the Wi-Fi or Ethernet interface. If unsure of the network interface name, run the ifconfig command to view all interfaces.
REMEMBER: This method of switching the MAC address is not permanent. The computer will restore the permanent physical MAC address after it is rebooted.
Why Would You Hide Your Mac’s IP Address?
The motives why Mac users decide to mask their IP addresses vary. In fact, some of them do it to download illegal content. But there are more reasons to mask your real IP.
For example, you may want to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship without getting in trouble. If you hide your IP address, it will look like you are sitting at a different place. Or you may do so to protect your privacy and stay away from annoying advertisers. Whatever your motives are, we have some ready-made solutions for you.
3 Ways to Hide Your Mac’s IP Address
There are actually more than 3 ways to hide your IP address. We’ve limited our guide to 3 approaches as the other ones like using mobile networks or public Wi-Fi are not secure enough.
Out of the methods described below, we recommend using a VPN. In this case, you’ll get both high speed and reliable encryption of your data. The other 2 methods will make you choose between fast and secure. Note that the best VPNs for Mac come at a price but isn’t your privacy worth it?
Hide My Ip Free Mac
Use a VPN for Mac
Choosing the right VPN for your Mac is probably the easiest thing to do if you want to mask your real IP address. This technology allows routing your Internet traffic through different servers which are a part of the VPN’s network.
The servers encrypt your data and set a different IP address to it. The new address may be from another continent, so no one will guess where you really are.
With a good VPN provider, you can torrent safely at your regular speeds, unblock geo-restricted platforms like Netflix and BBC iPlayer, and not sweat over the thoughts about the Big Brother watching you. It is your key to unlimited Internet freedom!
Setting up a VPN client on Mac is also easy and quick. Usually, providers offer custom Mac software for users’ convenience.
Use a Proxy
A proxy server is a bit similar to VPN. It is an in-between point between your device and the websites you are visiting. This means that your request does not go to the requested website directly but it “stops” at the proxy and then travels to the final destination. Proxy servers hide your real IP address and assign you with a new one.
Unlike VPNs for Mac, proxy servers don’t cost anything. You can easily find proxy servers with a simple Google search and may connect to any of them.
However, if compared to a VPN, proxy servers are not as convenient. You must remember using them whenever you want to go online, plus they may slow your speeds down significantly. Also, a proxy server would not encrypt your data, so anybody skillful enough can read it. Finally, you cannot use a proxy on mobile apps, just on a web browser.
Hide Ip Free Trial
With all said, a proxy is a simple yet one-time solution to help you mask your IP address and bypass geo-restrictions. But your ISP may track your activities. So do the government’s snoopers. Thus, if you want to get more solid protection of your privacy and more convenient service, choose a VPN instead.
How To Mask Mac Address
Use Tor
Another tool that will let hide your IP address using The Onion Router, or Tor. Its principle is simple. All the data from your device is sent via many networks of servers around the globe which makes it impossible to track. With Tor, you can open blocked websites. It also encrypts your data. Plus, it is free.
However, Tor is extremely slow, and you will hate streaming or torrenting with it. The reason of such slowness is obvious: it takes time to kick your data from one server to another and later return it to you. But this is how Tor works.
Bottom Line
The necessity to hide your real IP address on your Mac is not a whim anymore. This is more of a question of responsible attitude towards your own privacy and online, freedom.
Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your Mac device from spying eyes and get access to the beloved content (for legal purposes we assume). Many of them don’t even cost anything. You may opt to try all of them and then decide what fits your needs better. Stay safe!