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Monday, May 12, 2014

Difference Between MAC and IP address

Parameter
MAC Address
IP Address
Acronym for
media access control address
Internet Protocol Address
Used for
It is a unique identifier that is assigned to network interfaces for communicating on the physical network segments.
It is a numerical value that is assigned to all the participating devices in a network. i.e. Servers, Computers, Printers, WAP, Laptops etc.
Provided BY
It is generally provided by the manufacturer of the NIC cards and is stored in its hardware.
It is provided by the ISP (Internet Service Provider) or by the Network Administrator.
Length
It is 48 bit address which contains 6 groups of 2 hexadecimal digits, separated by either hyphens (-) or colons (:)
E.g. 00:FF:FF:AB:BB:AA
Or 00-FF-FF-AB-BB-AA
IPv4 uses 32 bit address in dotted notations, whereas IPv6 Uses 128 bit address in hexadecimal notations.

e.g. IPv4      192.168.1.1
IPv6    FFFE:F200:3204:0B00: 0122:4555:8001:AB00
Use of Classes
No classes are used in MAC addressing.
IPv4 uses A,B,C,D,E classes for IP addressing
Static Vs Dynamic
Although intended to be a permanent and globally unique identification but it is possible to change the MAC address on most modern hardware.
IP address can be static or dynamic. i.e. a fixed IP can be assigned to device (Computer/ Printer/ Server) or it may have dynamic IP that can change its value on every boot.
Spoofing
MAC spoofing Possible.
IP Address Spoofing Possible.
Address Sharing
MAC Address Sharing is not allowed and unique MAC address is assigned to each NIC.
Multiple client devices can share IP addresses: either because they are part of a shared hosting web server environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of its customers.
Subnetting
No subnetting is used.
IP networks may be divided into subnetworks in both IPv4 and IPv6.

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