What is MAC ADDRESS -2016

When you are in the field of Networking Hacking then you will often come across the word - MAC ADDRESS.

MAC ADDRESS stands for MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL ADDRESS. This is a binary number which is used to identify unique computer or you can say to it is used to uniquely identify computer network adapters.

If you want to know you Mac address click here

In general you can say every computer has unique MAC ADDRESS.(Not every time hackers can change it)

These binary numbers also called hardware addresses.These numbers are physically burned into the network hardware during  the manufacturing process or stored in firmware and designed to not be modified.

FORMAT OF MAC ADDRESS---

RRR.RRR.SSS.SSS

The first left 6 digits are of 24bits and are called as "prefix" and are associated with the adapter manufracturer. Prefixes are assigned by IEEE(Institute of Electrical And Electronics Engineers)

The right most digits are related to the specific identity of the device and thus they are different for each devices.

WHAT IS 64bit MAC ADDRESS?

Traditional Mac address used to of 48 bits (24+24) but now a days network likes "ZigBee" requires Mac address of 64bit in length to work.

Technically IPv6 automatically translate 48 bit Mac address into a 64 bit Mac address by inserting a fixed 16 bit number between vendor prefix and device identifier.

So if a 48 bit Mac address like

0:13:10:12:34:96 will appear as  0:13:10:AA:EE:12:34:96 on IPv6 network.

You can check vendor prefix and device identifier are same in not cases but what makes it different is those 16 bit hard coded - fixed value.

I hope this post has helped you to I derstand MAC ADDRESS basics.