How to get uuid or mac address from client in Java?

Question

I\'m looking for a solution for a Java based webapplication to uniquely identify the client. The server is in the same network as the clients and I thought that using the MA

Answer 1

Usage of IP address isn't working in the local network. I have used some other method to get a MAC address - sysout parsing of useful commands.

public String getMacAddress() throws Exception {
    String macAddress = null;
    String command = "ifconfig";

    String osName = System.getProperty("os.name");
    System.out.println("Operating System is " + osName);

    if (osName.startsWith("Windows")) {
        command = "ipconfig /all";
    } else if (osName.startsWith("Linux") || osName.startsWith("Mac") || osName.startsWith("HP-UX")
            || osName.startsWith("NeXTStep") || osName.startsWith("Solaris") || osName.startsWith("SunOS")
            || osName.startsWith("FreeBSD") || osName.startsWith("NetBSD")) {
        command = "ifconfig -a";
    } else if (osName.startsWith("OpenBSD")) {
        command = "netstat -in";
    } else if (osName.startsWith("IRIX") || osName.startsWith("AIX") || osName.startsWith("Tru64")) {
        command = "netstat -ia";
    } else if (osName.startsWith("Caldera") || osName.startsWith("UnixWare") || osName.startsWith("OpenUNIX")) {
        command = "ndstat";
    } else {// Note: Unsupported system.
        throw new Exception("The current operating system '" + osName + "' is not supported.");
    }

    Process pid = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(pid.getInputStream()));
    Pattern p = Pattern.compile("([\\w]{1,2}(-|:)){5}[\\w]{1,2}");
    while (true) {
        String line = in.readLine();
        System.out.println("line " + line);
        if (line == null)
            break;

        Matcher m = p.matcher(line);
        if (m.find()) {
            macAddress = m.group();
            break;
        }
    }
    in.close();
    return macAddress;
}

This should work everywhere. At least, the usage of this method on Ubuntu machine gives the following result:

Operating System is Linux
line eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f4:6d:04:63:8e:21  
mac: f4:6d:04:63:8e:21