Each router forwards the packet to the next router on the path until the packet has reached its final destination. The difference can be compared to a journey to a final destination (IP address) where you can have multiple legs of the journey, each time stopping temporarily at interim stops (routers with local MAC addresses) before moving on.Īn IP packet travelling over the Internet has many such temporary stops along the way in different routers that the packet must pass through. In contrast, MAC addresses are used on a more local scale, and hold information about the next hop destination in the local LAN network. They hold the final destination of the packet and can tell us which address the packet is originally coming from. IP addresses are relevant on a global scale. Each time a computer sends out network traffic the traffic has both a source and destination IP address, but it also has a source and destination MAC address. MAC addresses and IP addresses are two completely different types of addresses, but both are used by computers that communicate with each other. Starting from zero and going up to nine, and then continuing further using letters A through F: In the hexadecimal system, each digit can have 16 different values. In our decimal system that we use in everyday life each digit can have 10 values, ranging from zero to nine:

It is an address which is written into the network interface of the device during manufacturing.Ī MAC address consists of 12 hexadecimal characters and could look like this:

All equipment that can be connected to computer networks (computers, routers, servers, printers, smartphones and so on) have a MAC address.

Home network mac address changed