Extracting MAC address using Python

MAC address usage:

• Useful in places where the IP address changes frequently. Helps the network administrator. get information about network traffic.
• Helps us configure which computers can be connected to our computers. This way we can filter out potential spam / virus attacks.
• Helps in uniquely identifying computers from other computers around the world.

This article aims to extract the MAC address of a computer using Python.

Method 1: Using uuid.getnode ( )

getnode () can be used to retrieve the MAC address of a computer. This function is defined in the uuid module. 
The illustrated code below shows how to generate a UUID for a given host, identified by its MAC address, using the uuid1 () function.

# Python program to compute # host MAC address # using the UUID module   import uuid   # print unique MAC value # address using uuid and getnode () functions print ( hex (uuid.getnode ()))

Output:

 0x163e990b db 

Disadvantage :

• The obvious disadvantage is that the output is not formatted.

Method 2: Using getnode () + format () [for better formatting]

# Python 3 printable MAC code # in formatted form.   import uuid   # concatenates getnode () elements after every 2 digits.   print ( "The MAC address in formatted way is:" , end = "") print ( ’:’ . join ([ ’{: 02x}’ . format ((uuid.getnode ()"" ele) & amp;  0xff ) for ele in range ( 0 , 8 * 6 , 8 )] [:: - 1 ]))

Exit:

 The MAC address in formatted way is: 00: 16: 3e: 99: 0b: db 

Disadvantage :

• This code seems complicated.

Method 3: using getnode () + findall () + re () [to reduce complexity]

# Pyt hon 3 code for MAC printing # formatted and simpler # understand   import re, uuid   # concatenates getnode () elements after every 2 digits. # using a regular expression print ( "The MAC address in formatted and less complex way is:" , end = "") print ( ’:’ . join (re.findall ( ’..’ , ’% 012x’ % uuid.getnode ())))

Exit:

 The MAC address in formatted and less complex way is: 00: 16: 3e: 99: 0b: db