I’m aware that the mac address is part of the data link layer, but why can’t I just use my MAC address as IP address, too?
Why do I need both addresses?
In: 14
MAC is also known as a hardware address, its like a serial number for your network card that is unique to your device and unless ‘spoofed’ (faked, I’m looking at you android and apple) it is unchanging.
IP addresses on the other hand are variable and when setting up routing I can tell a router to send all traffic for the 10.1.x.x network to switch A and all traffic for 10.2.x.x to switch B with a single line of code for each (as when IPv4 was put in place memory was at a premium).
Nowadays with IPv6 the MAC is used but only makes up half of the ‘IP’ with the other information serving the same purpose as IPv4 would, allowing devices to know where to send data to 🙂
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