A MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique identifier assigned to a device’s network interface card (NIC) for communication within a local network.

Elaboration:

• 48-bit hexadecimal address (e.g., 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E).
• Works at Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model.
• Unlike IP addresses (which can change), MAC addresses are hardcoded into hardware.

Example:

A laptop’s Wi-Fi adapter has a unique MAC address used by routers to assign local network IPs.

To find your MAC address on Windows, run:

bashCopyEditipconfig /all