python - getting the MAC address properly in Windows

Question

I'm using Windows 7 and Python 2.6. I would like to get the MAC address of my network interface.

---

I've tried using the wmi module:

def get_mac_address():

    c = wmi.WMI ()
    for interface in c.Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration (IPEnabled=1):
        return  interface.MACAddress

However, experienced issues when executed without internet connectivity.

---

I've tried using the uuid module:

from uuid import getnode 
print getnode()

However, return value is a 48 byte representation of the MAC address

66610803803052

---

1) How should I convert the given number to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff format?
2) Is there a better way to get the MAC address?

Answer 1

Try this with Python 2:

import uuid

def get_mac():
  mac_num = hex(uuid.getnode()).replace('0x', '').upper()
  mac = '-'.join(mac_num[i : i + 2] for i in range(0, 11, 2))
  return mac

print get_mac()

If you're using Python 3, try this:

import uuid

def get_mac():
  mac_num = hex(uuid.getnode()).replace('0x', '').upper()
  mac = '-'.join(mac_num[i: i + 2] for i in range(0, 11, 2))
  return mac

print (get_mac())

Answer 2

This works:

>>> address = 1234567890
>>> h = iter(hex(address)[2:].zfill(12))
>>> ":".join(i + next(h) for i in h)
'00:00:49:96:02:d2'

Or:

>>> "".join(c + ":" if i % 2 else c for i, c in enumerate(hex(address)[2:].zfill(12)))[:-1]
'00:00:49:96:02:d2'

Or:

>>> h = hex(address)[2:].zfill(12)
>>> ":".join(i + j for i, j in zip(h[::2], h[1::2]))
'00:00:49:96:02:d2'

You first convert the number to hex, pad it to 12 chars, and then convert it to a series of two char strings, and then join them with colons. However, this depends on the accuracy of your MAC-finding method.

Answer 3

Using Python 3 specs:

>>> import uuid
>>> mac_addr = hex(uuid.getnode()).replace('0x', '')
>>> print(mac_addr)
>>> 94de801e0e87
>>> ':'.join(mac_addr[i : i + 2] for i in range(0, 11, 2))
>>> '94:de:80:1e:0e:87

Or

print(':'.join(['{:02x}'.format((uuid.getnode() >> i) & 0xff) for i in range(0,8*6,8)][::-1]))