What is a MAC address

MAC stands for Media Access Control, and a MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC). A NIC can be part of an Ethernet adapter, Wi-Fi module, or Bluetooth module used to connect a device to a network. Essentially, a MAC address serves as the hardware address of the network adapter.

A typical MAC address consists of six groups of two hexadecimal digits, which may be separated by hyphens, colons, or sometimes displayed without separators:

00:0a:95:9d:68:16

Without a MAC address, distinguishing between different network hardware adapters that share the same IP address would be impossible.

Is a MAC address accessible on the Internet?

A MAC address is an internal identifier within a private network, used to facilitate communication between devices. Typically, it is not visible or accessible outside its local network segment. The MAC address of a device on a global network is not available to other devices outside that network.

See also: What is an IP address.