how to get mac address from ip address command line

And the router responds: “Hi, I’m MAC yyy, Here is your IP, if you want to talk with others in the network use their IP, if you want to talk to a device out of the network send me the request with the destination IP”. When you plug your ethernet connection cable into your computer, the operative system sends a broadcast message through the network, saying “hey, I’m MAC address xxx, I want to join the network, I need an IP”. Why IP and MAC? Isn’t one address enough? Every manufacturer has a batch of MAC addresses assigned and should assign a different one to each produced device.

The MAC is used on the low-level side of communications. Generally, if you have both an ethernet card and a wireless card, they have two different MAC addresses. The MAC is the physical address used by your network card and is generally unique for that specific one.

For example, in a home network, the router that gives you access to the internet is normally responsible for the distribution of IP addresses. The IP is distributed to every device in a network by a service called DHCP. This is a typical standard representation of the ISO/OSI stack.įrom this schema, we can see that there are two different addressing levels: The logical addressing layer, represented by the IP address, and the physical layer, represented by the MAC address. It breaks the protocol communication into various levels of abstraction from the physical vehicle that transports the information. In computer networks, we have the ISO/OSI standard. In a computer network, being it your home one, your work one, or the entire internet, the various devices need a way to identify themselves and others to ensure the right communication.

Using the network connection details windowīefore digging into how to find it, let’s see what is the MAC on a computer network, so we’ll know better what we’re searching for.

Using the terminal Command Line Interface.

How to find the MAC address on Linux/Ubuntu.

But I’m here to help, so keep reading and we’ll discover how to find the MAC address of your Linux, Mac, or Windows computer.

If you’re not too familiar with technology, finding your MAC could be a big problem.

How to get mac address from ip address command line