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I also would like to know the Linux command to find it.

Thanks.

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If you want a answer more than "follow the network cable from behind the computer", please provide a lot more details. Right now your question is very vague and and will likely be closed. – Scott Chamberlain Feb 13 at 6:52
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@ScottChamberlain - Not necessarily so. It is entirely probable the question is asked by someone who thinks that a router broadcasts its identity and wants to know how to find out. (And, as my response shows, it sorta-kinda-does a bit) – davidgo Feb 13 at 7:30
Thank you for reply. I need to multicast a video to particular clients in the network. Multicast can be done through a router ... is it right ? pls clarify me here... if so do I need to know the routers address... pls provide info on multicasting a video.. – user197848 Feb 13 at 8:59
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@user197848 please edit your question and ask your real question (with more detials than you put in your comment) about how do do multicast video. See this post on the XY Problem, finding the router is X, broadcasting multicast video is Y – Scott Chamberlain Feb 13 at 13:54

1 Answer

This is non-trivial, and might not be impossible without tracing cables, but the general steps (assuming an ethernet or wireless connection) you would take which may identify the router, depending on your setup are:

  1. Open a terminal session
  2. Type route -n | grep "0.0.0.0"
  3. If more then 1 result comes back, find the result which has 0.0.0.0 as the first and third value in the line. Note the second value. This second value will be the IP address of your router. Also note the last value on that line, that will be the DEVICENAME for your interface.
  4. Type "arp -an -i DEVICENAME | grep "IP.ADDR.OF.ROUTER" | cut -f4 -d" " This will give you the MAC address of your router.

The MAC address of your router is the globally unique name of the Interface on the router. You need to identify which router it belongs to. The first 3 octets of A MAC address are assigned by a central body, so by copying the MAC address into http://www.coffer.com/mac_find/ it will provide the manufacturers name. Hopefully this will provide enough of a hint to tell you what router you are plugged into - otherwise you will need to do an audit to find the MAC address of the device. (The MAC address will sometimes be written on the router, and will invariably be available if you log into the router). Note that a router will typically have 1 MAC per interface, so it would be common to have multiple MAC addresses.

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The OP fell in to the XY problem, his real problem is that he needs to multicast video, not find the name of a router. – Scott Chamberlain Feb 13 at 13:55

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