MAC Ethernet Address

This essay is about a suggested student project in Java programming. This essay gives a rough overview of how it might work. It does not describe an actual complete program. I have no source, object, specifications, file layouts or anything else useful to implementing this project. Everything I have to say to help you with this project is written below. I am not prepared to help you implement it; I have too many other projects of my own.

I do contract work for a living, which could include writing a program such as this. However, I don’t do people’s homework for them. That just robs them of an education.

You have my full permission to implement this project any way you please.

This is JNI project that is more difficult than it sounds. Every Ethernet card has a 48 bit globally unique identifier called the MAC (Media Access Control). This gives you a unique id for a computer. The catches:

Some machines have several Ethernet cards, and hence several IDs.
Some Ethernet cards allow you to modify the id by software, so the ID won’t necessarily be unique or fixed.
It is easy to replace an Ethernet card or to move it from machine to machine.
The MAC is considered secret. Ordinary Java will not access it. You cannot access it without running code on the machine with the Ethernet card. Internet protocols will not divulge it.

Your task is to research the Byzantine way you access the MAC in Windows, and write some C/C++ code to fetch it. Then write some JNI glue to make the MAC available from Java to signed Applets or unsigned applications.

The notes in the MAC entry may help.

CC+ structures needed to access the MAC
CPU serial number
Ethernet
Ethernet
How To Determine the MAC
IP
JCE
JNI
LAN
MAC
MAC via ipconfig

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