Remote MAC address on Windows

[Alex Tweedly]

J. Landman Gay wrote:
> Is there a way to obtain the MAC address of a server from a client 
> machine on a Windows LAN?
>
> Some web research suggests that the arp command will give what I want, 
> but when I run it in the command line it says there are no arp 
> entries, even if I successfully ping the server first.
>
I would have expected that to work ....

you are doing "arp -a"  ?

allow a few seconds after the ping before trying it (should update 
within one second unless there are some funny config changes on the 
machine).

remember that it will not work on wifi networks, and will only work on a 
simple LAN (i.e. no router between client and server)

remember it will not work properly in some (unusual) setups where all 
traffic is directed through a router/DHCP server - usually identifiable 
by multiple arp entries with the same MAC address for multiple IP 
addresses (this is pretty obscure, but just possible)

and finally - because I just can't resist - why do you want to do this ?

answer off-list if you prefer - but I can think of a lot of reasons why 
you should try to avoid knowing the MAC address of other machines .... 
it can get you into deep trouble in some cases (e.g. proxy-ARP based 
networks, or those where gratuitous ARPs are used to switch the Mac 
address association, but there is no way to get these changes triggered 
up to any application which has stored this info).


-- 

Alex Tweedly      mailto:alex at tweedly.net      www.tweedly.net