Concepts / Ethernet and ARP

Ethernet and ARP

MAC address

Also called hardware address, Ethernet address

The 48-bit address of a network card, used to deliver frames within one network.

Written as six hex bytes, 02:42:0a:00:01:0a. Frames on Ethernet and Wi-Fi are addressed by MAC; IP addresses are only looked at once the frame arrives. A MAC address never leaves its own network: a router rewrites both MAC addresses at every hop, while the IP addresses stay the same end to end.

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