How to get client MAC address by a access on a website?

client-side mac-address
Richard picture Richard · Aug 11, 2010 · Viewed 77.4k times · Source

I have my website, and it records the number of visitors, IP and time of access...

I want to identify each visitor... I think that this was possible recording IP Address... but when the IP is dynamic, my system fails. So I think that I can solve it recording MAC address... is possible? What language should use? PHP, ASP, Javascript?

Thanks

Edit: What I can use to identify each user without having login information (username & pwd).

Answer

Alex Martelli picture Alex Martelli · Aug 11, 2010

The MAC address, by TCP/IP standards, is never communicated outside of the local-area network to which it pertains — routers beyond that LAN don't even get the information you're trying to record.

There are many other ways to try and identify unique visitors, including matching the user-agent's details in addition to the IP, serving cookies as part of your response, etc… it is, after all, a core functionality in the field of "web analytics".

MAC addresses are simply not part of the gamut of techniques that it makes sense to utilize for it!

Related questions

How to export JavaScript array info to csv (on client side)?

I know there are lot of questions of this nature but I need to do this using JavaScript. I am using Dojo 1.8 and have all the attribute info in array, which looks like this: [["name1", "city_name1", ...]["name2", "city_name2", ...]] …

Read More
How to create a file in memory for user to download, but not through server?

Is there any way I can create a text file on the client side and prompt the user to download it, without any interaction with the server? I know I can't write directly to their machine (security and all), but …

Read More
Pass request headers in a jQuery AJAX GET call

I am trying to pass request headers in an AJAX GET using jQuery. In the following block, "data" automatically passes the values in the querystring. Is there a way to pass that data in the request header instead ? $.ajax({ url: "…

Read More