Site icon The Word 360

A brief explanation of MAC and IP address and why it’s so important.

MAC and IP address

MAC and IP address

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"173035871"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>Introduction&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">By the time you are reading this post&comma; you must be connected to the internet&period; Ever wondered how the Internet that mines connected to knew me&period; I need this page or website&period; You made the request&comma; so how did you load it&quest; You don&&num;8217&semi;t tell the internet which is your mobile or laptop or PC or who or where you are&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">In fact&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t have to bother doing this because there are two addresses called <strong>&&num;8220&semi;IP&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong> and <strong>&&num;8220&semi;MAC&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong> addresses that are doing this for you&period; Internet Protocol or IP is simply your home number and Media Access Control or MAC address is the number of the room you live in your home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Let us simplify this MAC &lpar;Media Access Control&rpar; address and IP Address &lpar;Internet Protocol&rpar; both are used to uniquely define a device on the internet&comma; but they do the job at different levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>What is the MAC address&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">MAC address is the unique identification number assigned to each network device&period; Which is embedded in the memory &lpar;ROM&rpar; of the device by the manufacturer Company&period; This MAC address is assigned to the device&&num;8217&semi;s Network Interface Card &lpar;NIC&rpar;&period; MAC addresses are used on all network networks &lpar;Ethernet&comma; Bluetooth&comma; Wireless&comma; etc&period;&rpar;&period; The Data Link Control &lpar;DLC&rpar; layer of the network consists of two parts&period; The first is the logical link control layer and the second is the media access control layer&period; MAC address is the second part&period; The MAC address of each device connected to the network is Universal Unique&period; In other words&comma; each device has a different MAC Address Assignment&period; With this physical address&comma; the devices are able to communicate with each other&period; MAC addresses are also called Networking Hardware Address and Ethernet Hardware Address &lpar;EHA&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">MAC addresses are built into computer NICs &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Network Interface Cards”&period; The MAC address is a unique identifying number for any network device&period; It is in hexadecimal format&period; <strong>MAC address format is MM&colon;MM&colon;MM&colon;SS&colon;SS&colon;SS&period;<&sol;strong> For example&colon; <strong>05&colon; 9b&colon; bd&colon; 89&colon; e4&colon; 4q It must be 12 digits&period;<&sol;strong> The first half of the MAC address indicates the model or brand of the device and the other half is the unique number of the device&period; It can be compared to the IMEI of mobile or the VIN number of a car&period; This is the difference between IP and Mac&period; Contrary to what most people think&comma; MAC addresses can be changed easily&comma; it’s just almost always there is no need to change a device MAC Address&period; MAC Addresses usually have 3 types &&num;8211&semi; &lpar;a&rpar; Unicast &lpar;b&rpar; Multicast and &lpar;c&rpar; Broadcast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>What is the IP address&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">IP Address is also to be a part of a network&period; IP Address isn’t built-in&semi; it isn’t usually static&period; It changes from one network to another and from time to time&period; If I put it in simple terms&comma; I would say it’s an identifier so devices can communicate on a bigger scale compared to MAC Address&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">A logical address that is used to uniquely identify each computer or device or server connected to the Internet or network is called an Internet Protocol address or IP address&period; Two versions of the Internet Protocol are used&colon; IP version 4 &lpar;IPV4&rpar; and IP version 6 &lpar;IPV6&rpar;&period; Version two reveals the IP address separately&period; However&comma; due to the widespread use of IP version 4&comma; the release of version 4 is generally taken to mean IP address&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>IPV4<&sol;strong> is Internet Protocol Version-4&period; Currently&comma; IPv4 is the most widely used IP address&period; A total of <strong>four octets &lpar;8-bit binary&rpar;<&sol;strong> or a total of 32 bits are required to express each IP address in IPv4&period; A total of 4294496296 &lpar;232&rpar; unique addresses can be created by IPV4&period; IPv4 addresses are usually written in Decimal format&period; With which we can identify 429497294 hosts&period; The decimal number of each part is a number between 0 and 255&period; Some addresses in IPv4 are set aside for special needs&comma; such as private network &lpar;~ 16 million addresses&rpar; or multicast addresses &lpar;~ 280 million&rpar;&period; Each is separated by an octet dot &lpar;&period;&rpar;&period; For example&comma; 162&period;18&period;10&period;4 Each number&sol;part of the address represents a group of 8 bits&period; However&comma; in many cases&comma; IPv4 addresses are expressed with hexadecimal&comma; octal or binary numbers instead of dot-decimal&period; According to the class&comma; the IP version 4 &lpar;IPV4&rpar; the address is divided into 5 parts&period; And each class has a range&period; Namely&colon; &lpar;a&rpar; Class A &&num;8211&semi; Public IP Range &lpar;1&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 127&period;0&period;0&period;0&rpar; &amp&semi; Private IP Range &lpar;10&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 10&period;255&period;255&period;255&rpar;&comma; &lpar;b&rpar; Class B &&num;8211&semi; Public IP Range &lpar;128&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 191&period;255&period;0&period;0&rpar; &amp&semi; Private IP Range &lpar;172&period;16&period;0&period;0 to 172&period;31&period;255&period;255&rpar;&comma; &lpar;c&rpar; Class C &&num;8211&semi; Public IP Range &lpar;192&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 223&period;255&period;255&period;0&rpar; &amp&semi; Private IP Range &lpar;192&period;168&period;0&period;0 to 192&period;168&period;255&period;255&rpar;&comma; &lpar;d&rpar; Class D &&num;8211&semi; Public IP Range &lpar;224&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 239&period;255&period;255&period;255&rpar; &amp&semi; &lpar;e&rpar; Class E &&num;8211&semi; Public IP Range &lpar;240&period;0&period;0&period;0 to 255&period;255&period;255&period;255&rpar;&period; Note&comma; Class D &amp&semi; Class E have no private IP addresses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>IPV6<&sol;strong> is Internet Protocol Version-6&period; IPv6 has a total of eight parts for each IP address to be expressed and each bit requires 16 bits or a total of 128 bits&period; A total of 2126 unique addresses can be created by IPV6&period; IPv6 addresses are usually written in Hexadecimal format&period; IPv6 is displayed in 6 groups of 4 hexadecimal numbers and each group is separated by a colon symbol&period; <strong>An example of an IPv6 address is&colon; 2001&colon;0db8&colon;85a3&colon;0000&colon;0000&colon;8a2e&colon;0370&colon;7334&period;<&sol;strong> The Internet Engineering Task Force &lpar;IETF&rpar; has begun developing this IPv6 to address the limitations of the currently widely used IPv4&period; The application of IPv6 has already started in different countries of the world which is gradually increasing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>Why do we need a MAC address&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Let&&num;8217&semi;s say you are connected to the Wi-Fi access point &lpar;Wi-Fi is a broadcast medium&rpar; and you want to send a packet to some server &lpar;Google&rpar;&period; A packet is formed with source &lpar;your IP&rpar;&comma; destination &lpar;Google IP&rpar;&period; This packet is a software abstraction and to send this packet out to the Wi-Fi router you need to send it using electrical signal pulses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">So&comma; when you are sending the signal out of your computer to the Wi-Fi Router&comma; there are many people out there using the same Wi-Fi access point and can receive your signal because it&&num;8217&semi;s a broadcast network &lpar;In broadcast network&comma; a signal sent by one host is received by everyone within the signal range of the router&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Everyone who is present in your router vicinity is getting your signal and there is confusion regarding who should take the signal and receive the packet&period; We want our packet to be sent to the router as it is going to take our packet to the ultimate destination&period; So&comma; we specify the Router&&num;8217&semi;s Hardware Address &lpar;MAC address&rpar; encoded in the signals which are permanent to the router &lpar;Even if the router takes some other IP the next day&rpar;&comma; and the packet is sent&period; Everyone has their own MAC addresses and matches with the incoming packet&&num;8217&semi;s MAC address when they are listening&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">If it belongs to them&comma; they receive it&comma; otherwise they reject the packet silently and the packet is received by the intended device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>How to find out your own MAC and IP address&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">A network is not just a system made up of some computers&period; In addition to computers&comma; many other types of network devices are connected to a network&period; With the help of which a network is able to do all its work smoothly&period; And we can easily use the Internet or other networks&period; But it can be difficult to recognize so many different devices&period; So to solve this problem a unique number is given for each network device&period; Which is called the physical address of the device&period; And in the language of the network&comma; it is called MAC Address&period; In today&&num;8217&semi;s article&comma; we will show you how to find out the MAC Address of a computer&period; Here are the ways to find your computer&&num;8217&semi;s MAC Address&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">For Windows users&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list"><li>First open the Command Prompt on your computer&period; Open the Run utility by pressing the <strong>WIN &plus; R<&sol;strong> key to open the Command Prompt&period; Then type cmd and press Enter key&period;<&sol;li><li>Then type <strong>ipconfig&sol;all<&sol;strong> in the Command Prompt window and press Enter key&period;<&sol;li><li>Then under the Ethernet adapter Ethernet section on the right side of the Physical Address you will see the MAC and IP Address of your computer&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">For Linux users&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list"><li>First open the Command Prompt on your Linux computer&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li>Then type the <strong>ifconfig<&sol;strong> command&period;<&sol;li><li>Then under the Ethernet adapter Ethernet section on the right side of the Physical Address you will see the MAC and IP Address of your computer&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><strong>Conclusion<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Let&&num;8217&semi;s try to explain in simpler language&comma; when you enter Facebook&comma; first you say hi to your router&comma; the router will easily understand who gave the hi by looking at your mac address&comma; then he will see what he requested after that hi&period; Since Facebook has made the request&comma; the router will assign its IP and send the request to the internet and finally return to the same route and load Facebook on your mobile or PC&period; Although actually a very complex process very short&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Now just know that the IP address carries your location and the MAC address specific will define where you are sitting&period; When you are on the internet&comma; communication is being done with IP and when the packet is being entered locally&comma; then you are being connected by Mac&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Author Bio&nbsp&semi;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Md Rakibul Hasan is a very simple and organised person&period; He has an extraordinary mindset through which he has the ability to move forward by solving any difficult problem&comma; and he has been able to solve any logical problem very smartly&period; His RESEARCH INTEREST is &lpar;1&rpar; AI &lpar;2&rpar; Machine Learning &lpar;3&rpar; Intelligent Robots &lpar;4&rpar; Computer Vision &lpar;5&rpar; IoT&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version