The last three steps could be combined into one if you know all the settings and set up your network automatically.

The response is delivered to your Mac which needs to configure itself for the DNS/DHCP address and subnet assigned.

The receiving access point will either answer that request or broadcast / assign it to another device to handle.

The computer optionally asks for an address to be assigned (DHCP request) over the working radio connection.

The radios establish a two way link on the SSID - agreeing on channel, encryption, and what if any password your client needs to be let on.

If your intention is to spoof an address, generating a random MAC address is usually the best bet to avoid any network conflicts.There are 4 main steps for WiFi to work and you’ve passed the first hurdle. You can also retrieve individual IP addresses and MAC addresses together with the ifconfig command, although the output isn’t nearly as user friendly. Notice that even a wi-fi cards MAC address will be referred to as “Ethernet address” using the networksetup command. This may return something like this, look for the string following “Ethernet Address” to find the MAC address per interface:Įthernet Address: c6:18:ed:fa:ff:15:db:51 To quickly list all MAC addresses of network hardware on a Mac, even if they are currently inactive, launch the Terminal and type the following command:

List All Network Hardware MAC Addresses in Mac OS X Note that the wireless MAC address will be labeled as “Wi-Fi Address” in new versions of OS X like Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, anything from Lion and later as well as iPhone and iOS, whereas it’s called “Airport Address” in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and before. The address is always in the form aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff, looking something like “ce:9e:8d:02:1d:e9” or a variation of. Look at the bottom of the window for “Wi-Fi Address”, the hexadecimal characters next to this are the machines MAC address.Select your currently active network connection from the left menu (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc) and then click on “Advanced” in the lower right corner.Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu.To quickly find a MAC address on a Mac with OS X, do the following:

How to find ip address of macbook air