Mac OS Network Tools

Before proceeding to a detailed description of Mac OS network tools we will list a quick list of commands to find out IP address of your Mac OS computer.

ifconfig | grep broadcast

ipconfig getifaddr en0

scutil --nwi | grep address

Below are commands to get an IP address of your DNS (domain name server):

ipconfig getoption en0 domain_name_server

scutil –dns

nslookup google.com

To find out your router IP address use following commands:

netstat -nr | grep default

ipconfig

ipconfig is a Mac OS X tool which allows to view certain details about computer network connections.

For example, you can use it to retrieve a Mac OS computer IP address:

ipconfig getifaddr en0

Or to get DNS server name:

ipconfig getoption en0 domain_name_server

You can refer to a full ipconfig manual at ss64 ipconfig page.

Ifconfig

Ifconfig is a Unix based tool which can display and manage network interfaces of the computer. For example, if you run ifconfig without arguments you will see all of your computer network interfaces. To view all interfaces including inactive ones run:

Ifconfig -a

To view a specific interface following command should be used:

ifconfig eth0 (for ethernet connection)

ifconfig en0 (for wi-fi connection)

There are also multiple options of ifconfig which allow changing network configuration but we won’t list them here since they require advanced network administration knowledge and may cause problems if used by inexperienced user. For more details on ifconfig visit ifconfig manual page.

scutil

scutil or “system configuration utility” is a command line tool which can retrieve computer network information, set the computer name, retrieve and set settings in the operating system dynamic store.

For example, to get a computer name use:

scutil --get ComputerName

To set a computer name use

sudo scutil --set ComputerName MyComputerName

You can also use scutil to view current DNS configuration.

Scutil –dns

Or to show network configuration.

Scutil -nwi

Networksetup

Networksetup is a powerful command line tool which covers every possible operation you may want to do with Mac OS network interfaces. It can list current interfaces, change IP, modify DNS servers, delete and create network interfaces and many more.

networksetup -setmanual WiFiNetwork 10.0.0.101 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1.

Will set a static IP address on WiFiNetwork connection to 10.0.0.101.

10.0.0.0.1 Xfinity IP Administration