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
When a manufacturer builds a device intended to be networked, they assign it a MAC address according to a set of conventions. Normally this number is a combination of the manufacturer’s id, the product line id and a sequence number. However, MAC addresses only need to be locally unique so you can set them to (mostly) whatever you like as long as no more than two devices on the local network have the same MAC address.
IP addresses are used to route traffic globally, so they need to be centrally controlled. While consumers will normally have their addresses assigned dynamically by server providers, those service providers normally have a range of IP addresses they can use to receive traffic.
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