Every device attached to an Ethernet and Wireless network has a Mac addresses. The MAC (Media access control) address is also known as the physical address, and is, in effect, the address of the network adaptor.
Each network adaptor (wireless, Ethernet, PCI or USB) is assigned a unique 48 bit address (MAC/ physical address) at the time of manufacture which you cannot change.
Finding the MAC Address
To find the MAC address on a Windows 2000, XP machines open a command line by selecting start>run and enter cmd into the box and click OK:
At the command prompt type : Ipconfig /all and you will see the IP details displayed. In the screen shot below the computer is equipped with and Ethernet adaptor and a Wireless
adaptor. The details of both adaptors are displayed.
The MAC address is called the Physical address in the screenshots below and is a 48 bit number displayed in Hexadecimal.
For our Ethernet adaptor above the MAC address is 00-C0-9F-56-63-B2 and
For our wireless adaptor above the MAC address is 00-40-F4-D6-51-90.
MAC Addresses and IP Addresses
Many network newcomers get confused as to the difference between a MAC address and an IP address.
Mac addresses are fixed, assigned by the adaptor manufacturer, and cannot be changed. IP addresses are assigned by the system administrator or automatically (using DHCP) and are also called logical addresses, and they can be changed.
Related Articles and Resources
- Understanding Hubs and Switches
- Using the Ping Command to test your network by Pinging IP addresses.
- Finding IP Address-How to Find the IP Address of a windows Computer
- Internet and Networking Components- Internet and Networking Components for connecting to the Internet.
- Wireless Internet Connections
- Wi-Fi and Wireless Networking
- Wireless Setup on Network Devices
