What is the function of MAC address?

What is the function of MAC address?

A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

What are the 2 parts of a MAC address?

A MAC address consists of two parts. The Block ID is the first six characters of a MAC address. The Device ID is the remaining six characters. The Block ID is unique to the manufacturer.

Are MAC addresses only used in LAN?

3 Answers. MAC Addresses are used on layer 2 only, and Layer 2 is effectively a single Local Area Network with its own broadcast domains and link-local networks.

Why do MAC addresses have two parts?

A MAC address is the physical address of the device. It is 48 bits (6 bytes) long and is made up of two parts: the organizational unique identifier (OUI) and the vendor-assigned address, as illustrated in Figure 5-1.

What is the MAC address explained with an example?

For this reason, MAC addresses are made up of six two-digit hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons. For example, an Ethernet card may have a MAC address of 00:0d:83:b1:c0:8e. Fortunately, you do not need to know this address, since it is automatically recognized by most networks.

Why is MAC used in LAN?

The MAC address is an important element of computer networking. MAC addresses uniquely identify a computer on the LAN. MAC is an essential component required for network protocols like TCP/IP to function. Changing a MAC address can be necessary in some cases to keep an Internet connection working.

Does LAN use IP or MAC address?

The network devices responsible for delivering layer 2 frames to the destination are called Switches. MAC addresses are only used for communication on Local Area Networks (LANs), so if you want to access a remote network or the Internet, you need an IP address.

What is the function of a MAC address?

SuperUser contributor Werner Henze offers some insight into the function of the MAC address: What are MAC addresses used for? MAC addresses are the low level basics that make your ethernet based network work. Network cards each have a unique MAC address.

Can a device in network B have a MAC address?

If you have two networks with a router in between you cannot have a device in network A send a packet to the MAC address of a device in network B. No device in network A has the MAC address of the device in network B, so a packet to this MAC address will be discarded by all devices in the network A (also by the router).

How are MAC addresses used in Layer 2?

If the layer-2 protocol uses MAC addresses, it uses something like ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) to resolve the layer-3 address to a layer-2 address. If the destination host is on the same network as the source host, then the source host will use ARP to get the destination layer-2 address.

Are there any LAN technologies that do not use MAC address?

Note – LAN technologies like Token Ring, Ethernet use MAC Address as their Physical address but there are some networks (AppleTalk) which does not use MAC address. Types of MAC Address : 1.