Getting the MAC Address for an Ethernet Adapter

[Netbios is not supported on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and subsequent versions of the operating system]

You can use the Netbios function to get the Media Access Control (MAC) address for an ethernet adapter if your card is bound to NetBIOS. The following example uses the NCBASTAT command, providing an asterisk (*) as the name in the ncb_callname member of the NCB structure.

#include <windows.h>
#include <wincon.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "netapi32.lib")

typedef struct _ASTAT_
{
    ADAPTER_STATUS adapt;
    NAME_BUFFER NameBuff [30];
}ASTAT, * PASTAT;

ASTAT Adapter;

void main (void)
{
    NCB ncb;
    UCHAR uRetCode;
    memset( &ncb, 0, sizeof(ncb) );
    ncb.ncb_command = NCBRESET;
    ncb.ncb_lana_num = 0;

    uRetCode = Netbios( &ncb );
    printf( "The NCBRESET return code is: 0x%x \n", uRetCode );

    memset( &ncb, 0, sizeof(ncb) );
    ncb.ncb_command = NCBASTAT;
    ncb.ncb_lana_num = 0;
    
    memcpy( &ncb.ncb_callname, "*               ", 16 );
    ncb.ncb_buffer = (UCHAR*) &Adapter;
    ncb.ncb_length = sizeof(Adapter);

    uRetCode = Netbios( &ncb );
    printf( "The NCBASTAT return code is: 0x%x \n", uRetCode );
    if ( uRetCode == 0 )
    {
        printf( "The Ethernet Number is: %02x%02x%02x%02x%02x%02x\n",
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[0],
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[1],
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[2],
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[3],
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[4],
                Adapter.adapt.adapter_address[5] );
    }
}

**Windows Me/98/95:  **The preceding example does not work reliably on the Windows Me/98/95 versions of Windows.

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Build date: 7/2/2010