What is a MAC Address?

[Simon M]

Summary

MAC is short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network.

More information

In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the network media. Consequently, each different type of network media requires a different MAC layer.

Each and every Ethernet device interface to a network media has a unique MAC address, which is imprinted into the hardware at manufacture.

You can find out the MAC address of your devices by typing at the Command Prompt:

ipconfig /all

The line starting with Physical Address? signifies the MAC address.

Originally written by Simon M