What is the MAC address?

What is the MAC address? Correct Answer A unique number that identifies a device connected to the internet

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.

Key Points

  • The MAC Address ensures the computer device's physical location.
  • It helps us to identify a given device on the available network uniquely.
  • The MAC address is manufactured into every network card, such as an Ethernet card or Wi-Fi card, and therefore cannot be changed.
  • MAC addresses are recognizable as six groups of two hexadecimal digits, separated by hyphens, colons, or without a separator.

Hence MAC address is a unique number that identifies a device connected to the internet.

Additional Information

  • Frame check sequence (FCS) is an error-detecting code added to a frame in a communication protocol. Frames are used to send payload data from a source to a destination.
  • A port number is a way to identify a specific process to which an internet or other network message is to be forwarded when it arrives at a server.
  • A Uniform Resource Locator also referred to as URL is the unique address used to identify a Web site. It is similar to a home address, used to identify someone's mailing address.

Related Questions

If a switch receives a frame and the source MAC address is not in the MAC address table but the destination address is, what will the switch do with the frame?
Given below are two statements Statement I :  The MAC address identifies which device is connected at a given IP address Statement II : MAC addresses are unique to each device In light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below
The MAC (Media Access Control) address of the network card is used in both Ethernet and Token-Ring networks and is essential for communication. What does MAC provide?