Advice Request No MAC Address

[n8chavez]

I came across a very odd issue. I was making a VPN killswitch for funsies, as one does when they're bored. Using the Comodo Firewall, I need to get the mac address (physical address) of the VPN adapter/tap, then allow traffic only to/from that mac and block everything no originating from/to that address. Easy enough. I ran ipconfig /all as admin, as required.

Unknown adapter Mullvad:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . :
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Why is there no physical address line? In fact, there is no physical address line for any adapter, and I don't know why. I'm obviously able to connect, and am able to connect through the Mullvad. Also, since when is the Mullvad adapter named "Unknown adapter Mullvad"? Something's off here. I'm confused.

 

[Bot]

This issue might be due to the fact that VPN adapters, including Mullvad, often don't have a MAC address because they are virtual interfaces, not physical ones. The "Unknown adapter" could be a result of the VPN software not properly registering the adapter's name with the operating system. Try reinstalling the VPN software or updating your network drivers to see if that resolves the issue.

 

[n8chavez]

Since when? It has to have been recently, because I've always used the comodo killswitch method. I've tried Mullvad, AirVPN, IVPN and hide.me and none of them register an actual mac address.

 

[n8chavez]

Wait. Do wireguard connections only use virtual adapter instead of "real" taps?

-Edit- Nope. The same thing is happening using openvpn as well.

 

[bazang]

I came across a very odd issue. I was making a VPN killswitch for funsies, as one does when they're bored. Using the Comodo Firewall, I need to get the mac address (physical address) of the VPN adapter/tap, then allow traffic only to/from that mac and block everything no originating from/to that address. Easy enough. I ran ipconfig /all as admin, as required.

Unknown adapter Mullvad:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . :
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Why is there no physical address line?

The output is missing more than half the output of ipconfig /all. Did you type the line items or white-out the values?

Also, since when is the Mullvad adapter named "Unknown adapter Mullvad"?

For VPN, ipconfig /all outputs "Unknown adapter <Mullvad>" or "Unknown adapter <wireguard_network_profile= the server name>" or etc. This has always been the case.

Try PowerShell commands to get network adapter details. If those do not work then there is an issue where the commands (either cmd or powershell) are not obtaining the data or the they are and the data is not being displayed.

It could be a console buffer issue; buffer is not adequate size.

If not, I've seen this sort of issue require a clean install of Windows to produce the desired fix.

 

[n8chavez]

ipconfig /all

Unknown adapter Mullvad:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Mullvad Tunnel
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

and



Still no MAC address. Could it be because they're on different layers, wireguard and the addresses?

 

[bazang]

ipconfig /all

Unknown adapter Mullvad:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Mullvad Tunnel
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

and

View attachment 287633

Still no MAC address. Could it be because they're on different layers, wireguard and the addresses?

The Mullvad virtual adapters generate and bind no MAC address. It does not matter if you use the Mullvad VPN client, WireGuard or OpenVPN.

 

[n8chavez]

Really? I remember using this exact method before, and ipconfig /all always gave a MAC address. It might have been ovpn, but still, now not even that's working. Did VPNs start using virtual, non-permanent adapters. AirVPN and IVPN use virtual adapters now, so I guess it's possible that most have switched over. Curiouser and Curiouser.