What is a MAC address?
A MAC address (Media Access Control) is a unique and permanently assigned physical address on an ethernet network adapter. It allows computers to be uniquely identified on a network. No two network adapters have the same MAC address in the world. The MAC address is used to identify a subscriber’s computer. MDU uses the MAC address to control Internet access.
A MAC address, or Media Access Control address, is a 48- or 64-bit address associated with a network adapter. While IP addresses are associated with software, MAC addresses are linked to the hardware of network adapters. For this reason, the MAC address is sometimes called the hardware address, the burned-in address (BIA), or the physical address. MAC addresses are expressed in hexadecimal notation in the following format: 01-23-45-67-89-AB, in the case of a 48-bit address, or 01-23-45-67-89-AB-CD-EF, in the case of a 64-bit address. Colons (:) are sometimes used instead of dashes (-). MAC addresses are often considered permanent, but in some circumstances, they can be changed. There are two types of MAC addresses: The UAA, or Universally Administered Address, is the most commonly used type of MAC address. This address is assigned to the network adapter when it is manufactured. The first three octets define the manufacturer, while the second three octets vary and identify the individua
A Media Access Control address or MAC address is a unique code assigned to every piece of hardware that connects to the Internet. Internet capable phones, Network Interface Cards for desktop or notebook computers, Wireless Access Cards, and even some memory cards are among the devices that are assigned MAC addresses. When a manufacturer creates a network capable piece of hardware they will assign the MAC address which will usually begin with a code that is tied to the manufacturer. The MAC address will be unique to every device, even two devices of the same type. A device’s MAC address is composed of six pairs of hexadecimal numbers. The numbers are separated by colons as in the following example: 6E:51:F5:c1:11:00 MAC addresses are used at the data link layer of the OSI hardware model to allow packets to be passed directly between devices on a network. This helps to ensure that the data is sent to a physical device before being decoded and/or manipulated by a device. A MAC address is
