Does Your VPN Change (Or Hide) Your Mac Address?

What exactly is a MAC and how does it work? Well, MAC stands for Media Access Control and is a set of 12 symbols that is unique to every computer. Your MAC is how the computer is identified by third-party sources.

The main thing about your computer’s MAC is that it does not change. It is literally burned into the computer by your manufacturer. Often if you have many devices, you will have many MACs and it is your router’s job to keep track of all of these.

But how does a VPN affect a MAC? Can you change your MAC with a VPN? Can you conceal your MAC with a VPN? What are the benefits of getting a VPN concerning your MAC?

Well, if you want answers to all your MAC and VPN-related questions, then we would suggest that you keep reading. We’ll talk about how you can modify your MAC with a VPN, as well as how you can even spoof a VPN to trick third-party software trying to access your machine.

Your Mac Address Explained

As mentioned above, a MAC stands for Media Access Control, and it is a unique 12 digit serial number that is used to identify your device. Every device has one of these unique codes and they cannot be changed with software.

If you have many MACs operating in one household, you can record all these serial numbers on your router. If you have multiple devices communicating at any one time, then they often communicate through each other, with one device stripping off the serial number of the previous one.

For example, if computer A communicates with device B, then both of those device’s MACs are communicated to the next device, which then strips off the original device’s MAC and so on and so on. This then creates a chain of MACs that are used to transfer information from one place to another.

This provides you with increased security, as the next device will only know the MAC of the device that has preceded it, only transferring the internet traffic forward to the next device once it has been processed. With a VPN, your device will not be compromised, as the MAC is not transferred to the next device anyway.

Who Can See Your Mac Address?

If you are using a VPN, this will not affect the privacy of your MAC. This is because when it moves along one in the chain, the MAC address will be removed before it gets to the next device.

If you are transmitting information from your home computer to an internet server, your MAC details will not be transmitted. This way your MAC address will not be transmitted from one place to another due to it being lost much earlier in the chain.

However, there can be indirect ways of getting your MAC information from a third-party website. This is by extracting your IPv6 device and running a script through it. This is where a VPN will really come in handy for you and your data.

Can Scripts Get Your Mac Address?

There are two versions of the IP addresses - IPv4 and IPv6, with IPSs able to access both of these addresses. The IPv6 is very similar to the MAC address, although this is mainly because the IPv6 is manufactured on the address that it is using.

When you are accessing a website, then the IPv4 and IPv6 are visible to the website and technically whoever is running that website could have access to your MAC by deciphering that address.

Using a VPN is a great way of concealing your IPv6 address from these third-party access points. However, not all of these IPv6 addresses use a MAC to access your account, sometimes the IPS assigns the address at random, so you won’t have to worry about your address being copied.

Does A VPN Hide Your MAC Address?

There is another way that a third-party website can access your account, and that is by running a third script on your device. However, running a script on another computer is very difficult, as it would be very hard to gain access to your device without it accessing administrator privileges.

You cannot run a script from a browser, so the third party would have to remotely access your computer from another device. Again, this would be very tricky and would require a lot of passwords and access points, with the third party having to operate from within your computer, so to speak.

While the possibility of your computer being accessed in this manner is very remote, you can never completely rule it out. There are some expert hackers out there and one way of hiding your MAC address is by concealing your IPv6 with a VPN.

How To Spoof A MAC Address

While you cannot change your MAC address, you can protect it with a spoof one. Here is the method of doing it for both Windows and Mac OS.

Windows

  1. Search for your Device Manager. It should be in the Control panel tab.
  2. Find your Network Adapters and click on the properties tab of your network adapter.
  3. Check the Advanced tab and select the Network Address of your Local Network address.
  4. Now change the value in this box and restart your computer.

This is a fairly simple method of keeping these third-party bad faith actors on their toes.

Mac OS

  1. Turn off your wifi and launch the Terminal app.
  2. Use the Terminal app to generate a random MAC address.
  3. Use the Terminal app to set the new MAC address.
  4. Restart your computer.

It’s that simple! You don’t even have to have a VPN to hide your MAC address.

Matt

Leave a Comment