You can use ARP to resolve the IP addresses (Obtained during host discovery) to MAC addresses (Assuming its all in the same local area network). Once you have identified the MAC addresses that you wish to scan, feed the corresponding IP addresses to nmap for scanning. In short: Host Discovery IP to MAC conversion Identify target IP. MAC Address Scanner is the free desktop tool to remotely scan and find MAC Address of all systems on your local network. It allows you to scan either a single host or range of hosts at a time. During the scan, it displays the current status for each host. Download a free network analyzer to monitor, analyze and troubleshoot your network. How does it work? Choose a subnet from the Local Subnet combo box and click the Start button or F5 to execute scan. Colasoft MAC Scanner will display scan results in the list, including IP address, MAC address, Host Name and Manufacture. It will group all IP.
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How would you communicate with a device when you don’t have the IP?
You might be in a situation where you don’t have the IP address of a device in a local network, but all you have is records of the MAC or hardware address.
Or your computer is unable to display its IP due to various reasons, and you are getting a “No Valid IP Address” error.
Finding the IP from a known MAC address should be the task of a ReverseARP application, the counterpart of ARP.
But RARP is an obsolete protocol with many disadvantages, so it was quickly replaced by other protocols like BOOTP and DHCP, which deal directly with IP addresses.
In this article, we’ll show you how to find IPs and device vendors using MAC addresses with different methods for free.
Understanding ARP
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is the protocol in charge of finding MAC addresses with IPs in local network segments.
It operates with frames on the data link layer.
As you might already know, devices in the data link layer depend on MAC addresses for their communication.
Their frames encapsulate packets that contain IP address information.
A device must know the destination MAC address to communicate locally through media types like Ethernet or Wifi, in layer 2 of the OSI model.
Understanding how ARP works can help you find IPs and MAC addresses quickly.
The following message flow diagram can help you understand the concept:
- The local computer sends a ping (ICMP echo request) to a destination IP address (remote computer) within the same segment. Unfortunately, the local computer does not know the MAC address… it only knows the IP address.
- The destination hardware address is unknown, so the ICMP echo request is put on hold. The local computer only knows its source/destination IP and its source MAC addresses. ARP uses two types of messages, ARP Request and Reply.
The local computer sends an ARP REQUEST message to find the owner of the IP address in question.
This message is sent to all devices within the same segment or LAN through a broadcast MAC (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) as the destination.
- Because the remote computer is part of the same network segment, it receives the broadcast message sent by the local computer. All other computers in the LAN also receive the broadcast but they know that the destination IP is not theirs, so they discard the packet. Only the remote computer with destination IP, responds to the ARP REQUEST with an ARP REPLY, which contains the target MAC address.
- The local computer receives the ARP REPLY with the MAC address. It then resumes the ICMP echo request, and finally, the remote computer responds with an ICMP echo reply.
Finding IPs with ARP
You can use ARP to obtain an IP from a known MAC address.
But first, it is important to update your local ARP table in order to get information from all devices in the network.
Send a ping (ICMP echo reply) to the entire LAN, to get all the MAC entries on the table.
To ping the entire LAN, you can send a broadcast to your network.
Open the Command Prompt in Windows or terminal in macOS and type.
ping 192.168.0.255
My subnet is 192.168.0.0/24 (mask of 255.255.255.0), so the broadcast address is 192.168.0.255 which can be calculated or found with a “Print Route” command in Windows or a “netstat -nr” in macOS. Or can also be obtained with a subnet calculator.
For Windows:
Step 1.
- Open the CMD (Command Prompt)
- Go to the “Start” menu and select “Run” or press (Windows key + R) to open the Run application
- In the “Open” textbox type “cmd” and press “Ok”.
This will open the command-line interface in Windows.
Step 2.
- Enter the “arp” command.
- The arp command without any additional arguments will give you a list of options that you can use.
Step 3.
- Use the arp with additional arguments to find the IP within the same network segment.
- With the command “arp -a” you can see the ARP table and its entries recently populated by your computer with the broadcast ping.
Step 4.
- Reading the output.
- The information displayed in the arp-a is basically the ARP table on your computer.
- It shows a list with IP addresses, their corresponding physical address (or MAC), and the type of allocation (dynamic or static).
Let’s say you have the MAC address 60-30-d4-76-b8-c8 (which is a macOS device) and you want to know the IP.
From the results shown above, you can map the MAC address to the IP address in the same line.
The IP Address is 192.168.0.102 (which is in the same network segment) belongs to 60-30-d4-76-b8-c8.
You can forget about those 224.0.0.x and 239.0.0.x addresses, as they are multicast IPs.
For macOS:
Step 1:
- Open the Terminal App. go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal or Launchpad > Other > Terminal.
Step 2:
- Enter the “arp” command with an “-a” flag.
- Once you enter the command “arp -a” you’ll receive a list with all ARP entries to the ARP Table in your computer.
- The output will show a line with the IP address followed by the MAC address, the interface, and the allocation type (dynamic/static).
Finding IPs with the DHCP Server
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is the network protocol used by TCP/IP to dynamically allocate IP addresses and other characteristics to devices in a network.
The DHCP works with a client/server mode.
The DHCP server is the device in charge of assigning IP addresses in a network, and the client is usually your computer.
For home networks or LANs, the DHCP Server is typically a router or gateway.
If you have access to the DHCP Server, you can view all relationships with IPs, MACs, interfaces, name of the device, and lease time in your LAN.
Step 1.
- Log into the DHCP Server. In this example, the DHCP server is the home gateway.
- If you don’t know the IP address of your DHCP Server/ Gateway, you can run an ipconfig (in Windows) or ifconfig (in macOS/Linux).
- This particular DHCP Server/Gateway has a web interface.
Step 2.
- Enter the IP address on the search bar of the web browser, and input the right credentials.
Step 3.
- Find the DHCP Clients List.
- In this TP-Link router, the DHCP Server functionality comes as an additional feature.
- Go to DHCP > DHCP Clients List. From this list, you can see the mapping between MAC addresses and their assigned IPs.
Using Sniffers
Find Mac Addresses On Network
If you couldn’t find the IP in the ARP list or unfortunately don’t have access to the DHCP Server, as a last resort, you can use a sniffer.
Packet sniffers or network analyzers like Nmap (or Zenmap which is the GUI version) are designed for network security.
They can help identify attacks and vulnerabilities in the network.
Mac Addresses List
With Nmap, you can actively scan your entire network and find IPs, ports, protocols, MACs, etc.
If you are trying to find the IP from a known MAC with a sniffer like Nmap, look for the MAC address within the scan results.
How to find the Device and IP with a Sniffer?
Step 1.
- Keep records of your network IP address information.
- In this case, my network IP is 192.168.0.0/24. If you don’t know it, a quick “ipconfig” in Windows cmd or an “ifconfig” in macOS or Linux terminal can show you the local IP and mask.
- If you can’t subnet, go online to a subnet calculator and find your network IP.
Step 2.
- Download and open Nmap.
- Download Nmap from this official link https://nmap.org/download.html and follow its straightforward installation process.
Step 3.
- Open Nmap (or Zenmap) and use the command “sudo nmap -sn (network IP)” to scan the entire network (without port scan).
- The command will list machines that respond to the Ping and will include their MAC address along with the vendor.
- Don’t forget the “sudo” command.
- Without it, you will not see MAC addresses.
Finding out the device vendor from a MAC address
Ok, so now you were able to find out the IP address using “arp -a” command or through the DHCP Server.
But what if you want to know more details about that particular device?
What vendor is it?
Your network segment or LAN might be full of different devices, from computers, firewalls, routers, mobiles, printers, TVs, etc.
And MAC addresses contain key information for knowing more details about each network device.
First, it is essential to understand the format of the MAC address.
Traditional MAC addresses are 48 bits represented in 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (or six octets).
The first half of the six octets represent the Organizational Unique Identifier (OUI) and the other half is the Network Interface Controller (NIC) which is unique for every device in the world.
There is not much we can do about the NIC, other than communicating with it.
But the OUI can give us useful information about the vendor if you didn’t use Nmap, which can also give you the hardware vendor.
A free online OUI lookup tool like Wireshark OUI Lookup can help you with this.
Just enter the MAC address on the OUI search, and the tool will look at the first three octets and correlate with its manufacturing database.
Final Words
Although the RARP (the counterpart of ARP) was specifically designed to find IPs from MAC addresses, it was quickly discontinued because it had many drawbacks.
RARP was quickly replaced by DHCP and BOOTP.
But ARP is still one of the core functions of the IP layer in the TCP/IP protocol stack.
It finds MAC addresses from known IPs, which is most common in today’s communications.
ARP works under the hood to keep a frequently used list of MACs and IPs.
But you can also use it to see the current mappings with the command arp -a.
Aside from ARP, you can also use DHCP to view IP information. DHCP Servers are usually in charge of IP assignments.
If you have access to the DHCP server, go into the DHCP Client list and identify the IP with the MAC address.
Mac Address Scanner
Finally, you can use a network sniffer like Nmap, scan your entire network, and find IPs, and MACs.
If you only want to know the vendor, an online OUI lookup like Wireshark can help you find it quickly.
| FastResolver v1.26 - Scan IP addresses for host names and MAC addresses Copyright (c) 2005 - 2014 Nir Sofer |
Scan For Mac Address On Network
Related Utilities
- NetResView - View all computers/shares on your network.
- PingInfoView - Ping to multiple host names/IP addresses.
Description
FastResolver is a small utility that resolves multiple host names into IP addresses and vice versa.You can simply type the list of IP addresses or host name that you want to resolve, or alternatively, you can specify IP addresses range that you want to scan.For local network, FastResolver also allows you to get the MAC address of all IP addresses that you scan.FastResolver is a multithreaded application, so it can resolve dozens of addresses within a few seconds.Versions History
- Version 1.26:
- Added 'Copy As Hosts File' option. (Ctrl+H)
- Version 1.25:
- Added 'MAC Address Format' option (XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX, XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, or XXXXXXXXXXXX).
- Version 1.23:
- Fixed to work with the latest versions of oui.txt
- Version 1.22:
- Fixed bug: The size of addresses list text-box was limited to 32 KB.
- Version 1.21:
- Added support for typing IP range, like 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.10
- Version 1.20:
- Added 'Company Name' column that is determined according to the MAC address (Requires to download externl file - see below)
- Version 1.16:
- Fixed bug: The main window lost the focus when the user switched to another application and then returned back to FastResolver.
- Version 1.15:
- Added support for starting the IP addresses scanning from command-line
- Added support for saving into comma-delimited (.csv) file.
- Fixed bug in radio buttons of mode selection
- Version 1.10:
- Added support for scanning MAC addresses (works only for local network).
- Added new option: Resolve hosts without domain.
- The configuration is now saved to a file, instead of the Registry.
- Version 1.00 - First release.
System Requirements
- Windows operating system: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003.
- Network connection.
Be aware that resolving IP address to host name doesn't work well under Windows 98/ME.
Using FastResolver
FastResolver doesn't require any installation process or additional DLLs.Just put the executable file (FastResolver.exe) anywhere you like, and run it.Scan For Ip Addresses On Network Mac
After you run FastResolver utility, you can type multiple IP addresses and host names, separated by commas, spaces, or CRLF.Alternatively, you can select IP addresses range to resolve into host names.The 'Company Name' Column
Starting from version 1.20, FastResolver allows you to view the company name of each MAC address.However, in order to get this feature, you must download the following external file, and put in the same folderof FastResolver.exe: http://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui/oui.txtBe aware that you must save it as 'oui.txt'
Options Menu
- Display Multiple Host IP Addresses: If this option is checked, and the host name has multiple IP addresses, all IP addressesare displayed.
- Resolve IP Addresses Back To Host Name:If this option is checked, and you resolve an host name to IP address, the IP Address is resolved back into a host name, and displayed in 'Host Name' column. The original host name that you typed is displayed under 'Original Name' column.
Scan Mac Address On Network Cmd
Command-Line Options
| /IPTo <IP Address> | Specifies the to IP address | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| /DisplayMultiIPAddr <0 | 1> | Display Multiple Host IP Addresses. 1 to enable, 0 to disable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If you want to run FastResolver without the translation, simply rename the language file, or move it to another folder. LicenseThis utility is released as freeware. You are allowed to freely distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM, Internet, or in any other way, as long as you don't charge anything for this. If you distribute this utility, you must include all files inthe distribution package, without any modification !DisclaimerThe software is provided 'AS IS' without any warranty, either expressed or implied,including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitnessfor a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental,consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.FeedbackIf you have any problem, suggestion, comment, or you found a bug in my utility, you can send a message to nirsofer@yahoo.com
FastResolver is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of FastResolver, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'fastresolver_lng.ini', and put it in the same folder that you Installed FastResolver utility.
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