First, there’s the address of the Ethernet connection, followed by the data of the Wi-Fi connection currently in use.

To sum up, although you probably only use one MAC address on most of your devices, there can be many more.īelow you can see what it looks like when your device has multiple MAC addresses. Even when you use a VPN, you’ll get a new address for that internet connection. So, you have a different address for your ethernet connection than for your Wi-Fi connection. This is because the address is not just unique to every device, but also to every internet connection. One device can have multiple MAC addresses. This is very useful and even crucial: it ensures that your search results don’t end up on your roommate’s laptop. Because of this, information can be sent to the correct device within a network. To illustrate: if you connect multiple devices to a router at home, all devices have the same IP address, but each device has its own MAC address. This way, the router knows where to send information. The internet card or adapter of your device broadcasts this address to make itself known to devices in its surroundings. This makes it possible to identify a device. MAC IDs are 48-bit codes, which means they consist of a series of twelve digits and letters. It also ensures that your router can send information to the correct device within the network. The address is required for devices in a network to communicate with each other. This NIC, also called a network card, ensures that your computer can connect to a network.Ī MAC address is sometimes also called the hardware address or the physical address of a device. It’s a unique address that’s given to a NIC (Network Interface Controller) by the manufacturer. In this case, MAC stands for Media Access Control. Hiding your IP address, for example with a VPN, has a much greater effect on your privacy than hiding your MAC address.ĭo you want to know everything about MAC addresses? Read our full article below.Įvery device has a MAC address, but not everyone knows what this is. Your IP address is more important for your privacy than your MAC address, because the latter is usually not shared with websites.This is perfectly legal, but hackers sometimes use this tactic so that criminal activities cannot be traced back to them. one for your wifi connection and one for your ethernet connection.

A device can have multiple MAC addresses, e.g.This allows a router, for example, to know where to send the data back to. The MAC address is an identifier for other devices in the neighbourhood.This makes your device recognisable to other devices in your network, so that the data traffic between those devices is managed properly. A MAC address is a unique identification number, which is the network module in your device, with which you can connect to the Internet.

What is my mac address windows 10