MAC addresses are usually assigned by the manufacturer of the network device, and they are stored in the device’s firmware. MAC and IP addresses are both unique identifiers assigned to devices connected to a network, but there are some key differences between the two.Ī MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique hardware address that identifies a device on a network. The difference between MAC and IP Address A MAC address is hard-coded into the hardware of a device and cannot be changed, while an IP address can be assigned dynamically or statically and can change over time. The main difference between an IP address and a MAC address is that an IP address is used to identify a device on a network while a MAC address is used to uniquely identify a specific piece of hardware. An IPv6 address is composed of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. An IPv4 address consists of four numbers separated by periods, each ranging from 0 to 255, such as 192.168.1.1. What is an IP AddressĪn IP address is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. The network identifier specifies which network the device is attached to, while the host identifier identifies the specific device on that network. An IP address is composed of two parts: a network identifier and a host identifier. IP (Internet Protocol) addresses are logical identifiers used by routing protocols to identify devices on a network. Logically, MAC addresses are used in the media access control protocol sublayer of the OSI reference model. MAC addresses are used as network addresses for most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

A MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment.

How to find computer mac address