What's the easiest way to read a MAC address 'n suck it into MS Access?

[MLH]

I would like to read a MAC address from at least one NIC
in a PC on which I have an Access 97 runtime app installed.
What's the least hassel method you know of?

[Lyle Fairfield]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in news:pdrac1h2ididiqa9l7ej0j7ee2fvvo7308@
4ax.com:

I would like to read a MAC address from at least one NIC
in a PC on which I have an Access 97 runtime app installed.
What's the least hassel method you know of?

Knock three times on the ceiling ...

[David W. Fenton]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in
news:pd********************************@4ax.com:

I would like to read a MAC address from at least one NIC
in a PC on which I have an Access 97 runtime app installed.
What's the least hassel method you know of?

There's code here:

http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?cod...macaddress.htm

that does the job via NetBIOS. It's based on this MS Knowledge Base
article:

http://www.codeguru.com/resources/Network/

Note, however, that it will fail if the local machine has TCP/IP
over NetBIOS turned OFF (as anyone connected to the Internet and
running TCP/IP really ought to; otherwise your computer ends up with
a half dozen ports open to the Internet, none of which are useful
for anything other than exposing you to nasties out there on the
Internet). If NetBIOS over TCP/IP is turned off, the function there
returns 0.0.0.0.

I was able to get the code here to work with NetBIOS turned off:

http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?cod...ressremote.htm

I didn't think it *would*, since it said it as for remote IP
addresses, but it reported the same MAC Address as shows up in
ipconfig /all for my NIC. Note that it doesn't work with passing
127.0.0.1 (the loopback address).

The mention of ipconfig raises the alternative I had thought of
before Googling, which is to use shell to redirect ipconfig /all to
a text file, then open that text file and hunt for the line that
indicates Physical Address: -- but I don't do file I/O, so I can't
demonstrate how to use that.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[MLH]

Well, there you go! I didn't read your post as thoroughly as I
should have. I didn't notice the /all parm on the ipconfig command.
Will that always return the hard coded address on the current NIC?
I sure hope so. If its that simple, I'm good to go. Many thx Mr
Fenton!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I didn't think it *would*, since it said it as for remote IP
addresses, but it reported the same MAC Address as shows up in
ipconfig /all for my NIC. Note that it doesn't work with passing
127.0.0.1 (the loopback address).

The mention of ipconfig raises the alternative I had thought of
before Googling, which is to use shell to redirect ipconfig /all to
a text file, then open that text file and hunt for the line that
indicates Physical Address: -- but I don't do file I/O, so I can't
demonstrate how to use that.

[MLH]

Big thanks for the heads up on shelling out to run ipconfig /all.
Its likely the most reliable option. IPconfig will return a MAC addr
even when he cable is disconnected and netbios is NOT running.
I think that's gonna be he ticket!

BTW, how exactly does one pass a command like this
ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt
to a DOS window via the VBA Shell command? Do I
run something like this...
Dim RetVal
RetVal = Shell("c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe", 0)
And then use sendkeys to handle the
ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt
part? If that's the only way, I guess I'll write a DOS batch file
to run ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt and name it z~.bat or
something short 'n sweet.

I can handle the rest of it, opening a file for input, reading &
parsing to get what I want.

The mention of ipconfig raises the alternative I had thought of
before Googling, which is to use shell to redirect ipconfig /all to
a text file, then open that text file and hunt for the line that
indicates Physical Address: -- but I don't do file I/O, so I can't
demonstrate how to use that.

[David Schofield]

On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 10:09:51 -0400, MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote:

Big thanks for the heads up on shelling out to run ipconfig /all.
Its likely the most reliable option. IPconfig will return a MAC addr
even when he cable is disconnected and netbios is NOT running.
I think that's gonna be he ticket!

BTW, how exactly does one pass a command like this
ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt
to a DOS window via the VBA Shell command? Do I
run something like this...
Dim RetVal
RetVal = Shell("c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe", 0)
And then use sendkeys to handle the
ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt
part? If that's the only way, I guess I'll write a DOS batch file
to run ipconfig /all > c:\mydir\myfile.txt and name it z~.bat or
something short 'n sweet.

I can handle the rest of it, opening a file for input, reading &
parsing to get what I want.

Hi
see other thread, but here is a copy: one way is-

1. Create a file C:\getconfig.bat consisting of

ipconfig /all >C:\config.txt

You can do this in code as required or make sure one is on the
machine.

Some batch commands, and I'm not sure whether ipconfig is one of them,
don't work properly from the run command but only from the "dos"
window,

2. launch this file using ShellWait (see http://www.mvps.org) (or just
shell out and doevents and wait a few seconds). Run it minimised.

3. open the file config.txt and parse out the information you want.
(Easier said than done, look for lines "physical address".However not
obvious which one is primary NIC. Also I'm not sure this is abolutely
always the physical address though it probably is.)

In the above instead of C: you should really get a suitable path, eg
use apiGetTempDir (also at http://www.mvps.org) though C:\temp would
probably be OK.

also there may be a different option to /all which gives you more
exactly what you need from ipconfig

4. Never use sendkeys.

I still think this is all too complicated!

David

[MLH]

yeah, I found out the hard way before reading this post.
Lots of wierd stuff (including loss of keyboard) - w/o any error
reported.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

4. Never use sendkeys.

I still think this is all too complicated!

David

[David W. Fenton]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in
news:ek********************************@4ax.com:

Big thanks for the heads up on shelling out to run ipconfig /all.
Its likely the most reliable option. IPconfig will return a MAC
addr even when he cable is disconnected and netbios is NOT
running.

What about when the NIC is disabled?

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc