IP address and MAC address

**DarenHawk** · 14-05-2009

I have search many forums regarding the IP address and the physical address(MAC) I need to know the possible difference between both of them when do and how do we differentiate between MAC addresses of a machine, and does that MAC address identifies the computer by their IP address or MAC address.
thank you in advance for your help!

**Luther** · 14-05-2009

I also search for this information on the internet regarding IP address and MAC address and i found this.
A MAC address is a unique number that identifies a network device.
An IP address identifies a computer connected to a TCP / IP network.
MAC address is a hexadecimal number unique for each material and each manufacturer selects its own MAC address for these materials.

IP Address:

Public IP address you must buy from an ISP.
Private IP address to use in LAN.

**Baser-X** · 14-05-2009

IP Address and MAC Address both especially plays at 2 different levels on the osi layer:

level 2 for MAC
Level 3 IP

If you remain in the same subnet, using your ARP request, you know the MAC address of the IP that you try to ping so you can attach by against if you try to attach an IP address from another subnet, you can not find its mac address directly, in this case, your post is the MAC address of your gateway which will then route on the right under network, it is the ARP protocol which forms the link between MAC and IP.

**KaramChand** · 14-05-2009

The MAC address is an address of 48 bits 12 hex digits. MAC address is a physical identifier stored in the memory of the NIC. It thus identifies the network interface of the machine.

And the IP address is an address of 32 bits, divided into 4 times 8 bits (bytes). This address is an identifier of network. It suggest where your message lies on the network layer. You can then divide into 2 portions:

The portion of the network
and the host portion

The first portion identifies the network on which the machine and the second identifies the machine itself. To identify these 2 parts, each address is associated with a subnet mask. This allows to define which network it is located.