bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) (03/21/91)
I need to find out the ethernet address of the machine my
program is running on without the help of the file /etc/hosts
(They are not maintained on my site). I know my hostname
and internet address. Surely there must be a standard
way to do this but I'll be damned if I can find it.
Thanks for any help,
Jim Coleman
Jim Coleman
Concurrent Engineering Research Center (C.E.R.C.)
West Virginia University
955 Hartman Run Road
Morgantown, WV 26506
Phone: (304) 293-7536
Home : (304) 292-6603
FAX: (304) 293-7541
ARPAnet: bigbroth@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edujik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (03/21/91)
In article <1467@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu>, bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: |> I need to find out the ethernet address of the machine my |> program is running on without the help of the file /etc/hosts |> (They are not maintained on my site). I know my hostname |> and internet address. Surely there must be a standard |> way to do this but I'll be damned if I can find it. No, ther eis no standard way of doing this. It is quite dependent on the hardware you are running on (including, quite possibly, which ethernet boards you are using) and on the operating system running on that hardware. If you tell us what hardware you're using and what OS it's running, we will probably be able to help you more effectively. -- Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710
Gary White (03/21/91)
In article <1467@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: > > >I need to find out the ethernet address of the machine my >program is running on without the help of the file /etc/hosts Jim- If you are on a unix machine, generally the ifconfig command will tell you. You say ifconfig port where you determine the name of the ethernet device 'port' by first doing netstat -n -r. Alternatively, even if you are *not* running Unix, if you can log in to a Unix host (on the *same* ethernet cable, not on another subnet) and then type arp -a you should find out. -Gary White
torek@elf.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek) (03/22/91)
In article <1467@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: >I need to find out the ethernet address of the machine my >program is running on ... Why do you assume that you even *have* an Ethernet address? The machine I am typing at is on the Internet but is not on an Ethernet. (It happens to have an Ethernet address anyway, as it is a Sparcstation SLC.) Any machine may have any number of Ethernet addresses, from 0 to infinity (well... :-) ). Although the intent of the original Xerox Ethernet design was that each machine would have a single Ethernet address (wired into its backplane, or in a PROM, or---as in this SLC---in a piece of battery-backed-up RAM [and what happens when the battery dies, anyway? The TOD clock fails, but the machine also forgets not only its ether address but also that it is a Sun-4/XX. Yow!]), there have been plenty of violations. You must not count on having exactly one ether address per machine. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 415 486 5427) Berkeley, CA Domain: torek@ee.lbl.gov
bigbroth@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) (03/22/91)
From article <11292@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, by torek@elf.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek): > In article <1467@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> > bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: >>I need to find out the ethernet address of the machine my >>program is running on ... > > Why do you assume that you even *have* an Ethernet address? The > machine I am typing at is on the Internet but is not on an Ethernet. > (It happens to have an Ethernet address anyway, as it is a Sparcstation > SLC.) Any machine may have any number of Ethernet addresses, from 0 > to infinity (well... :-) ). Stuff Deleted . . . > -- > In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 415 486 5427) > Berkeley, CA Domain: torek@ee.lbl.gov Chris, You are right that just because a machine is on the Internet or is a Unix machine it is not necessarily on an Ethernet or even has a Ethernet number. There are certainly many other types of LAN networks. But ALL the machines which will be running my monitor will be on an Ethernet and will be Unix based systems. This has been a requirement for the systems we develop for. I imagine the people in the know here feel this isn't very limiting and porting to other network access protocols can be done when we get a solid base on Ethernets. My original problem remains unsolved: I need a way to determine from within my program what is the Ethernet address of the machine it's running on. I am developing on Sun's, HP's, DECStations,VAXstations, and SGI's. I thought it would be as easy as finding out my Internet address(that one took me abouy half an hour) but so far no luck. Jim Jim Coleman Concurrent Engineering Research Center (C.E.R.C.) West Virginia University 955 Hartman Run Road Morgantown, WV 26506 Phone: (304) 293-7536 Home : (304) 292-6603 FAX: (304) 293-7541 ARPAnet: bigbrot