How to Find Your Chromebook's MAC Address

How to find your IP address, as well

By Robert Earl Wells III
Published on April 20, 2020

In order to connect a Chromebook to Wi-Fi, you may need to know how to find your Chromebook MAC address or IP address. Fortunately, the process is the same for all Chrome OS laptops.

Information in this article applies to all Chromebooks regardless of the manufacturer (Acer, Dell, Google, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.).

What Is Your Chromebook's MAC Address?

A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a binary number used to identify network adapters, which enable devices to connect to the internet. Some laptops have two MAC addresses: a wired one for Ethernet connections and a wireless one for Wi-Fi. Because some networks have security features set up that block untrusted connections, you might need to provide your Chromebook's MAC and IP addresses to the network administrator before you can access the web.

How to Find the MAC Address on Chromebook

Your MAC address can be found in your system settings:

  1. Open the Chrome browser and enter chrome://system in the address bar to access the About System page.

    Enter chrome://system in the Chrome browser to access the About System page.

  2. Scroll down the page and select Expand next to iconfig.

    Scroll down the page and select Expand next to iconfig.

  3. Look in the wlan0 section. The wireless MAC address will be listed next to ether.

    The wireless MAC address will be listed next to ether in the wlan0 section.

    If your Chromebook has an Ethernet port, you can see your wired MAC address in the eth0 section.

Find the MAC Address From the Welcome Screen

If you've yet to set up your Chromebook, you can find your MAC address from the welcome screen. Expand the Select a network menu to see the wired and wireless MAC addresses.

How to Check Your IP Address on Chromebook

You can view both the MAC and IP addresses from the Chromebook shelf:

  1. Select the time in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

    Select the time in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

    If you don't see the Chrome OS shelf, tap or click in the bottom-right corner of the screen to bring it up.

  2. Select your Wi-Fi network in the pop-up window.

    Select your Wi-Fi network in the pop-up window.

  3. Select Network.

    Select Network.

  4. Your Chromebook's IP address and MAC will appear in a small pop-up window. The Mac address is listed as Wi-Fi.

    Your Chromebook's IP address and MAC will appear in a small pop-up window.

What Types of Networks Support Chromebooks?

Chromebooks are capable of connecting to secure WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks. However, each of these wireless excryption protocols is slightly different, and may have different uses. Be sure you know which is best for the situation you're in before you create the connection.

If you're setting up a wireless network, it's best to use the WPA2 security protocol as it is more secure than both WEP and WPA.

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