Change Mac address

[J5000]

I'm trying to change my Mac address on my Android phone. I new to this and did not mishandle any addresses on my device. I downloaded the terminal emulator. On the command prompt it said:

James:/$

I typed ipconfig. It replied with:

/System/bin/sh: ip config: not found
127|James:/ $

Grateful for any help.

 

 

[Levent]

ipconfig is a windows command. Linux equivalent is ifconfig.

[NelizMastr]

It's not technically legal to just change your MAC address, so be careful.

[porina]

1 minute ago, NelizMastr said:

It's not technically legal to just change your MAC address, so be careful.

I wasn't aware of this, can you expand? The nearest I can think of is that part of the MAC addresses is a manufacturer ID. iOS and Android support randomisaion of MAC address to help prevent tracking.

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I wasn't aware of this, can you expand? The nearest I can think of is that part of the MAC addresses is a manufacturer ID. iOS and Android support randomisaion of MAC address to help prevent tracking.

 

It's not a question of legality, it's a question of reason. Changing the MAC address traditionally was because WiFi routers used to connect to ISP supplied modems, but tied to the MAC address of the computer it was intended to be connected to. This hasn't been done for like 10 years.

 

However many WiFi routers ALSO let you filter by MAC address.

 

MAC address randomization is a feature of mobile phones for connecting to open WiFi access points, but that comes with the consequences of the WiFi access point dropping you, a lot, because that MAC address will be different every time the phone goes into standby.

 

On a corporate network, ip addresses and hostnames are assigned by MAC address, and thus changing the MAC address may imply some malfeasance by the user.

 

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Kisai said:

It's not a question of legality, it's a question of reason.

Good technical considerations, but my curiosity is more about @NelizMastr statement it was "not technically legal", and I am interested if I'm missing something there.

[Kisai]

18 minutes ago, porina said:

Good technical considerations, but my curiosity is more about @NelizMastr statement it was "not technically legal", and I am interested if I'm missing something there.

It's like asking to change the fingerprints of the device. The reason, again, is that someone asking how to is usually up to no good, as there is no legitimate reason to do this other than to evade a filter/ban elsewhere. MAC address randomization is more of a privacy thing and only done over open wifi to avoid tracking by the AP provider, or anyone snooping on unencrypted traffic nearby (eg like a cafe or an airport terminal.)

 

So there's no legitimate reason to change the MAC address on a wired device. On a wireless device, if randomization of the MAC address is not what you need, then I question why you'd want to change it.

 

Most network adapters since moving to on-board chips have allowed the MAC address to be overridden, However, you can't just pick arbitrary MAC addresses.

 

https://standards.ieee.org/products-services/regauth/index.html

 

Note that, it costs money to actually acquire MAC addresses (eg ones intended to be permanently assigned to the device.)