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Getting a MAC address from a remote machine

Opinion
Jun 02, 20032 mins
Networking

Is there any ready-made code available to get a MAC address from a remote machine (behind a router) when the client is executing a Web page? Something in Java Server Pages or Java would be preferable.

We are implementing a media access control address authentication and authorization module for one of our applications. Is there any ready-made code available to get a MAC address from a remote machine (behind a router) when the client is executing a Web page? Something in Java Server Pages or Java would be preferable.

You recently wrote that one might be able to obtain the MAC address from Windows machines by  exploiting the fact that COM includes the system MAC address as part of identifiers it creates. Elaboration on this would be appreciated.

The quick answer is no – there is not any ready-made, easy-to-use code available to automatically get a MAC address from a remote machine behind a router. If you really want to authenticate MAC addresses, then present a Web page that asks the user to copy his MAC address into a form.

Exploiting the fact that Windows COM identifiers include the MAC address is overly intrusive and unreliable.

A better solution for authenticating machines across network boundaries is to use personal digital certificates on authorized client machines.