Why MAC address is required if there is the IP address of every system?

So again, IP Addresses are logical and routeable addresses. And that’s why computers have both MAC Addresses and IP Addresses. MAC Addresses handle the physical connection from computer to computer while IP Addresses handle the logical routeable connection from both computer to computer AND network to network.

Why IP address is required for a packet transfer and MAC address alone is not enough?

Originally Answered: When a MAC address for different computers is unique, why do we need an IP address for transferring packets? Because a MAC address is set in the factory and can end up anywhere. It would be possible to route via MAC addresses, but every device would have to store the location of every other device.

Does router use MAC address or IP address?

These create a logical address structure that makes it possible to build networks of networks, ultimately covering the earth. So your router has a MAC address so the various machines can talk to each other using Ethernet, and a IP address to communicate with the world.

What is the MAC address used for?

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 is the function of MAC address?

What can MAC address do?

If you know the MAC address of someone’s device it is possible to ‘spoof’ it and steal someone’s internet connection. The only way you can connect to a computer remotely is using an IP or Internet Protocol address, and even then there are many security features in place to prevent you from doing such.

What is the purpose of a MAC address?

What is the use of MAC?

MAC stands for Media Access Control. It is a unique identifier for network interfaces. It is used as a network address for most IEEE 802 network technologies. Sometimes it is known as the burned-in address (BIA) or the Ethernet hardware address (EHA).

Does a router know MAC address?

A router doesn’t know nor does it care about the MAC address of a remote destination. MAC addresses are used only for delivery in layer-2 segments like Ethernet within a directly attached network. Those addresses are of no consequence to any node outside that segment.

Does every router have a MAC address?

Every network interface of every device (router, switch port, etc.) has a unique mac address. Routers deal with IP (layer 3 of the OSI). Local communication uses MAC address (Layer 2) unless it needs the router to get to another network.

How do IP addresses and MAC addresses work on a router?

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). Routing is done on IP level. Simply seen the router is just doing what I described above in the section “How do IP addresses and MAC addresses work together?”.

Why do I need a MAC address for my computer?

Even if your computer has an IP address, it still needs a MAC address to find other machines on the same network (especially the router/gateway to the rest of the network/internet), since every layer is using underlying layers. On the page mentioned earlier you can find some nice diagrams explaining the protocol suite in detail.

What is the difference between MacMac and IP addresses?

MAC Addresses handle the physical connection from computer to computer while IP Addresses handle the logical routeable connection from both computer to computer AND network to network.

How is the MAC address of a network determined?

Only the former (determining next-hop) is usually called routing. To answer your second part, MAC addresses are discovered through ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) in IPv4 & ND6 (Neighbor Discovery) in IPv6. Update: The destination IP address in the IP header is the final destination.