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Networking & Telecommunications vocabulary · Routing and Switching

MAC address

Meaning in networking & telecommunications, with examples

nounCore term

In networking & telecommunications, MAC address means: A hardware address, usually set in a network card at the factory, that identifies a device on a local network; it has 48 bits and is written as six pairs of hexadecimal digits.

In Turkish: MAC adresi, fiziksel adres, donanım adresi

How it is used

'MAC' is said like the word 'mack'. Switches learn MAC addresses and store them in a MAC address table; engineers look up a MAC address to find which port a device is plugged into. Unlike an IP address, it only matters inside the local network.

Example sentences

  1. Send me the MAC address of the new printer and I'll add a DHCP reservation.

  2. The MAC address table shows the camera on port 17 of the second switch.

Common collocations

  • MAC address table
  • look up a MAC address
  • MAC filtering
  • learn a MAC address
  • switchA device with many ports that connects computers, phones, printers and other equipment inside the same local network and forwards each frame only to the port where its destination is.
  • IP addressA unique numerical label given to every device on an IP network so that data can be sent to it, for example 192.168.1.20 in IPv4.
  • ARPShort for Address Resolution Protocol: the protocol a device uses on a local network to find the MAC address that belongs to a known IPv4 address.
  • EthernetThe standard technology (IEEE 802.3) for wired local networks, which defines how devices send frames over copper or fibre cables at speeds from 10 Mbps up to hundreds of gigabits per second.
  • network interface cardThe hardware in a computer or server that connects it to a network, either as a separate card or built into the motherboard, with its own MAC address.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Routing and Switching

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