Join the Discord Server! https://discord.com/invite/QZ2B9GA3BH --------------------- MY FULL CCNA COURSE 📹 CCNA - https://certbros.teachable.com/p/cisco-ccna?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=desc&utm_campaign=CCNA FREE CCNA FLASHCARDS 🃏 CCNA Flashcards - https://certbros.com/ccna/flashcards HOW TO PASS THE CCNA 📚 Get a great book - https://amzn.to/3f16QA5 📹 Take a video course - https://certbros.teachable.com/p/cisco-ccna?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=desc&utm_campaign=CCNA ✔ Use practice exams - https://www.certbros.com/ccna/Exsim SOCIAL 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/certbros 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/certbros 👔 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/certbros 💬 Discord - https://www.certbros.com/discord Disclaimer: These are affiliate links. If you purchase using these links, I'll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is a MAC address? MAC stands for Media Access Control. It’s a unique identifier that is assigned to a network interface card, aka a NIC. This is what a MAC address looks like 08-00-27-EC-10-61. Its a 48-bit (6-byte) address that is used for layer 2 communication. The first thing to note is that unlike IP addresses, which and can be changed, MAC addresses are burnt into NIC buy the manufacture. A MAC address has 2 sections. The first 24-bits is called the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) and it identifies the vendor. The last 24-bits is a unique value assigned by the vendor. The result is an address that should be unique in the world. There are three types of Mac address Unicast - A unique mac address assigned to an interface Multicast - An address used to send traffic to a device using a particular application/protocol. Broadcast - An address that is sent to all devices within a local network. Why do we need MAC addresses? When are computers are talking on the local area network or LAN, they use layer 2 communication, and layer 2 communication uses MAC addresses. When we leave our network, this is when the IP addresses are used. Routers are layer 3 devices and they mainly focus on IP addresses to get the data to the destination. #ccna #cisco #networking