Using the MAC Address Tool

The MAC Address tool enables you to discover what MAC addresses are present on your network and gives you the opportunity to obtain physical connectivity information for devices on your network. This tool is useful to solve IP address conflicts within your network by providing you with specific switch information.

Tool results

After running the tool, the results of the test are displayed at the bottom of the page.

If Get connectivity information using SNMP is not selected when the tool is run, the results include the following columns:

• IP Address. The IP addresses of devices on your network.
• MAC Address. The MAC addresses of devices on your network.
• Hostname. The hostnames of devices on your network.

If Get connectivity information using SNMP is selected when the tool is run, the results include the following columns:

• IP Address. The IP addresses of devices on your network.
• MAC Address. The MAC addresses of devices on your network.
• Hostname. The hostnames of devices on your network.
• Port. The port numbers of the switch ports that are connected to the devices that own the listed MAC addresses.
• Index. The unique value assigned to each interface. This number typically corresponds with the interface port number.

  Note: If Port and Index report values of -1, WhatsUp Gold did not understand the response from the switch or the request timed out. Verify that credentials are correct and that you can view other SNMP information from the switch, and then run the MAC Address tool again.

• Description. The interface description of the interface to which a device is connected. Listed as a letter and a numeral, such as "B4".  The interface description allows you to identify the physical connector on the switch.

To use the MAC Address Tool:

1. Enter or select the appropriate information in the following fields.
   • Local subnet. Enter the subnet on which you would like to find MAC addresses.
   • Get connectivity information using SNMP. If you would like switch-specific connectivity information for a device in the network, select this option. If this option is selected, the following options are enabled. If this option is cleared, the following options are disabled.
     • Switch IP address. Enter the switch IP address.
     • SNMP credential. Select the SNMP credential that you use to poll this device. If the credential you want to use is not listed, you can add it using the Credential Library.
     • Timeout (seconds). Enter the amount of time for the tool to wait on a response from the switch. The MAC address discovery fails if this time limit is exceeded.
     • Retries. Enter the maximum number of retries when polling the switch using SNMP.
2. Click Discover to discover the MAC addresses present on your network.