What Does Mac Address Stand For

 



Last Updated on January 14, 2021 by

5.1.2.8 Lab – Viewing Network Device MAC Addresses Answers

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Lab – Viewing Network Device MAC Addresses (Answers Version – Optional Lab)

MAC is an acronym and stands for Media Access Control. The MAC address (also known as the physical address) is your computer's unique hardware number. When you're connected to the Internet from your computer (or the 'host'), a correspondence table relates your IP address to your computer's physical (MAC) address on the LAN. A MAC address consists of six groups of two characters (numbers or letters). Depending on where you view the address, these groups are separated by colons, hyphens, or nothing at all. That said, here is a typical MAC address as shown on a Windows computer: D4-FB-6A-7C-31-B4. (I made up this random address to use as an example in this article). A message authentication code (MAC), or tag, is a security code that is typed in by the user of a computer to access accounts or portals. This code is attached to the message or request sent.

Answers Note: Red font color or gray highlights indicate text that appears in the instructor copy only. Optional activities are designed to enhance understanding and/or to provide additional practice.

Topology

Addressing Table

DeviceInterfaceIP AddressSubnet MaskDefault Gateway
S1VLAN 1192.168.1.2255.255.255.0N/A
PC-ANIC192.168.1.3255.255.255.0192.168.1.1

Objectives

Mac

Part 1: Configure Devices and Verify Connectivity

Part 2: Display, Describe, and Analyze Ethernet MAC Addresses

Background / Scenario

Every device on an Ethernet LAN is identified by a Layer 2 MAC address. This address is assigned by the manufacturer and stored in the firmware of the NIC. This lab will explore and analyze the components that make up a MAC address, and how you can find this information on a switch and a PC.

You will cable the equipment as shown in the topology. You will configure the switch and PC to match the addressing table. You will verify your configurations by testing for network connectivity.

After the devices have been configured and network connectivity has been verified, you will use various commands to retrieve information from the devices to answer questions about your network equipment.

Note: The switches used are Cisco Catalyst 2960s with Cisco IOS Release 15.0(2) (lanbasek9 image). Other switches and Cisco IOS versions can be used. Depending on the model and Cisco IOS version, the commands available and the output produced might vary from what is shown in the labs.

Note: Make sure that the switches have been erased and have no startup configurations. If you are unsure, ask your instructor.

Answers Note: Refer to the Answers Lab Manual for the procedures to initialize and reload devices.

Required Resources

  • 1 Switch (Cisco 2960 with Cisco IOS Release 15.0(2) lanbasek9 image or comparable)
  • 1 PC (Windows 7 or 8 with a terminal emulation program, such as Tera Term)
  • Console cable to configure the Cisco switch via the console ports
  • Ethernet cables as shown in the topology

Part 1: Configure Devices and Verify Connectivity

In this part, you will set up the network topology and configure basic settings, such as the interface IP addresses and device name. For device name and address information, refer to the Topology and Addressing Table.

Step 1: Cable the network as shown in the topology.

  1. Attach the devices shown in the topology and cable as necessary.
  2. Power on all the devices in the topology.

Step 2: Configure the IPv4 address for the PC.

  1. Configure the IPv4 address, subnet mask, and default gateway address for PC-A.
  2. From the command prompt on PC-A, ping the switch address.
    Were the pings successful? Explain.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________
    No. The switch has not been configured yet.

Step 3: Configure basic settings for the switch.

In this step, you will configure the device name and the IP address, and disable DNS lookup on the switch.

  1. Console into the switch and enter global configuration mode.
    Switch> enable
    Switch# configure terminal
    Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
    Switch(config)#
  2. Assign a hostname to the switch based on the Addressing Table.
    Switch(config)# hostname S1
  3. Disable DNS lookup.
    S1(config)# no ip domain-lookup
  4. Configure and enable the SVI interface for VLAN 1.
    S1(config)# interface vlan 1
    S1(config-if)# ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
    S1(config-if)# no shutdown
    S1(config-if)# end
    *Mar 1 00:07:59.048: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console

Step 4: Verify network connectivity.

Ping the switch from PC-A. Were the pings successful? __________________________________________

The pings should be successful.

Part 2: Display, Describe, and Analyze Ethernet MAC Addresses

Every device on an Ethernet LAN has a MAC address that is assigned by the manufacturer and stored in the firmware of the NIC. Ethernet MAC addresses are 48-bits long. They are displayed using six sets of hexadecimal digits that are usually separated by dashes, colons, or periods. The following example shows the same MAC address using the three different notation methods:

00-05-9A-3C-78-00 00:05:9A:3C:78:00 0005.9A3C.7800

Note: MAC addresses are also called physical addresses, hardware addresses, or Ethernet hardware addresses.

You will issue commands to display the MAC addresses on a PC and a switch, and you will analyze the properties of each one.

Step 1: Analyze the MAC address for the PC-A NIC.

Before you analyze the MAC address on PC-A, look at an example from a different PC NIC. You can issue the ipconfig /all command to view the MAC address of your NIC. An example screen output is shown below. When using the ipconfig /all command, notice that MAC addresses are referred to as physical addresses. Reading the MAC address from left to right, the first six hex digits refer to the vendor (manufacturer) of this device. These first six hex digits (3 bytes) are also known as the organizationally unique identifier (OUI). This 3-byte code is assigned to the vendor by the IEEE organization. To find the manufacturer, you can use a tool like www.macvendorlookup.com or go to the IEEE web site to find the registered OUI vendor codes. The IEEE web site address for OUI information is http://standards.ieee.org/develop/regauth/oui/public.html. The last six digits are the NIC serial number assigned by the manufacturer.

  1. Using the output from the ipconfig /all command, answer the following questions.What is the OUI portion of the MAC address for this device?________________________________________________________________________________
    5C-26-0A
    What is the serial number portion of the MAC address for this device?________________________________________________________________________________
    24-2A-60
    Using the example above, find the name of the vendor that manufactured this NIC.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    Dell Inc.
  2. From the command prompt on PC-A, issue the ipconfig /all command and identify the OUI portion of the MAC address for the NIC of PC-A.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on manufacturer.
    Identify the serial number portion of the MAC address for the NIC of PC-A.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on manufacturer serial number code.
    Identify the name of the vendor that manufactured the NIC of PC-A.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on manufacturer OUI.

Step 2: Analyze the MAC address for the S1 F0/6 interface.

You can use a variety of commands to display MAC addresses on the switch.

  1. Console into S1 and use the show interfaces vlan 1 command to find the MAC address information. A sample is shown below. Use output generated by your switch to answer the questions.S1# show interfaces vlan 1Vlan1 is up, line protocol is up Hardware is EtherSVI, address is 001b.0c6d.8f40 (bia 001b.0c6d.8f40) Internet address is 192.168.1.1/24 MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit/sec, DLY 10 usec, reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255 Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set Keepalive not supported ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00 Last input never, output 00:14:51, output hang never Last clearing of “show interface” counters never Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0 Queueing strategy: fifo Output queue: 0/40 (size/max) 5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec 5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec 0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer Received 0 broadcasts (0 IP multicasts) 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles 0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored 34 packets output, 11119 bytes, 0 underruns

    0 output errors, 2 interface resets

    0 unknown protocol drops

    0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

    What is the MAC address for VLAN 1 on S1?____________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on the switch the student is using. Using the output from above, the answer would be 001b.0c6d.8f40.
    What is the MAC serial number for VLAN 1?____________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on the switch the student is using. Using the output from above, the answer would be 6d-8f-40.

    What is the OUI for VLAN 1?____________________________________________________________________________________
    Answers will vary based on the switch the student is using. Using the output from above, the answer would be 00-1b-0c.

    Based on this OUI, what is the name of the vendor?____________________________________________________________________________________
    Cisco Systems

    What does bia stand for?____________________________________________________________________________________
    Burned in address.

    Why does the output show the same MAC address twice?____________________________________________________________________________________
    The MAC address can be changed via a software command. The actual address (bia) will still be there. It is shown in the parenthesis.

  2. Another way to display the MAC address on the switch is to use the show arp command. Use the show arp command to display MAC address information. This command maps the Layer 2 address to its corresponding Layer 3 address. A sample is shown below. Use output generated by your switch to answer the questions.S1# show arpProtocol Address Age (min) Hardware Addr Type InterfaceInternet 192.168.1.1 – 001b.0c6d.8f40 ARPA Vlan1Internet 192.168.1.3 0 5c26.0a24.2a60 ARPA Vlan1What Layer 2 addresses are displayed on S1?____________________________________________________________________________________
    S1 VLAN 1 and PC-A MAC addresses. If the student also records the MAC addresses, their answers will vary.What Layer 3 addresses are displayed on S1?____________________________________________________________________________________
    S1 and PC-A IP addresses

Step 3: View the MAC addresses on the switch.

Issue the show mac address-table command on S1. A sample is shown below. Use output generated by your switch to answer the questions.

Answers Note: The show mac address-table command can vary based on the model switch you are using. For example, the syntax on some switches is show mac-address-table.

S1# showmac address-table

Mac Address Table

——————————————-

Vlan Mac Address Type Ports

—- ———– ——– —–

All 0100.0ccc.cccc STATIC CPU

All 0100.0ccc.cccd STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0000 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0001 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0002 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0003 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0004 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0005 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0006 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0007 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0008 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0009 STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000a STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000b STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000c STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000d STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000e STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.000f STATIC CPU

All 0180.c200.0010 STATIC CPU

All ffff.ffff.ffff STATIC CPU

1 5c26.0a24.2a60 DYNAMIC Fa0/6

Total Mac Addresses for this criterion: 21

Did the switch display the MAC address of PC-A? If you answered yes, what port was it on?

____________________________________________________________________________________

Yes. Port should be F0/6. Answers will vary for the MAC address. In the example above, the MAC address would be 5c26.0a24.2a60.

Reflection

  1. Can you have broadcasts at the Layer 2 level? If so, what would the MAC address be?_______________________________________________________________________________________
    You can have broadcasts at Layer 2. ARP will use broadcasts to find MAC address information. The broadcast address is FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.
  2. Why would you need to know the MAC address of a device?_______________________________________________________________________________________
    There could be a variety of reasons. In a large network, it may be easier to pinpoint location and identity of a device by its MAC address instead of its IP address. The MAC OUI will list the manufacturer, which may help narrow down the search. Security measures can be applied at Layer 2, so knowledge of allowable MAC addresses is needed.

Device Config

Switch S1

S1# show run

Building configuration…

Current configuration : 1335 bytes

!

version 15.0

no service pad

service timestamps debug datetime msec

service timestamps log datetime msec

no service password-encryption

!

hostname S1

!

boot-start-marker

boot-end-marker

!

no aaa new-model

system mtu routing 1500

!

no ip domain-lookup

!

spanning-tree mode pvst

spanning-tree extend system-id

!

vlan internal allocation policy ascending

!

interface FastEthernet0/1

!

interface FastEthernet0/2

!

interface FastEthernet0/3

!

interface FastEthernet0/4

!

interface FastEthernet0/5

!

interface FastEthernet0/6

!

interface FastEthernet0/7

!

What Does A Mac Address Stand For

interface FastEthernet0/8

!

interface FastEthernet0/9

!

interface FastEthernet0/10

!

interface FastEthernet0/11

!

interface FastEthernet0/12

!

interface FastEthernet0/13

!

interface FastEthernet0/14

!

interface FastEthernet0/15

!

Mac Address What Does Mac Stand For

interface FastEthernet0/16

!

interface FastEthernet0/17

!

What Does Mac Address Stand For

interface FastEthernet0/18

!

interface FastEthernet0/19

!

interface FastEthernet0/20

!

interface FastEthernet0/21

!

interface FastEthernet0/22

!

interface FastEthernet0/23

!

interface FastEthernet0/24

!

interface GigabitEthernet0/1

!

interface GigabitEthernet0/2

!

interface Vlan1

ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

!

ip http server

ip http secure-server

logging esm config

!

line con 0

line vty 5 15

!

end

What Does Bia Stand For Mac Address

Locate your type of smartwatch below for instructions on how to locate its MAC Address. If it is not listed, consult the watch’s service manual or manufacturer for assistance.

Unlike the iPhone, you can’t go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch and connect to Macalester Wi-Fi. Follow these steps to register its MAC Address and then join Macaster Gadgets.

Step 1: Locate the MAC Address for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Select General.
  3. Click About.
  4. The MACAddress (Watch) / Wi-Fi Address (iPhone) will be displayed.

Step 2: Register your iPhone and Apple Watch on the Macalester College Device Registration Portal.

Step 3: Join Macalester Gadgets on your iPhone.

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap Wi-Fi.
  3. Select Macalester Gadgets.
  4. Enter the Wireless Password shown on the Registration Receipt.

Step 4: Verify your Apple Watch and iPhone are connected to Macalester Gadgets.

The Connected to iPhone icon appears in the status bar of the Watch’s Control Center.

What Does Mac Address Stand For In Computers

Step 5: Remove your iPhone from Macalester Gadgets.

  1. Go to Macalester College Device Registration Portal – available on campus only.
  2. Enter your Macalester Username and Password.
  3. Click Log In.
  4. Click Manage Device.
  5. Locate your entry for your iPhone.
  6. From the State column, click Active, the option to Remove appears. Click Remove.

Step 6: A Green cloud icon appears in the status bar of the Watch’s Control Center, indicating that the watch is now connected to the Macalester Gadgets network.

Unlike your smartphone, you can’t go into Settings on your watch and connect to Macalester Wi-Fi. Follow these steps to register its MAC Address and then join Macaster Gadgets.

Step 1: Find the MAC Address.

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Choose System.
  3. Click About.
  4. Select Model.
  5. The MACAddress will be displayed.

Step 2: Register your watch on the Macalester College Device Registration Portal.

Step 3: Connect to Macalester Gadgets.

What Does Mac Stand For In A Mailing Address

  1. On your watch, tap Settings.
  2. Press Connectivity.
  3. Tap Wi-Fi.
  4. Select Add network.
  5. When prompted for the password for Macalester Gadgets, tap Enter on phone.
  6. From the Android Wear App, enter the Wireless Password shown on the Registration Receipt.
  7. Tap Connect.

You can’t go into Settings on your watch and connect to Macalester Wi-Fi. Follow these steps to register its MAC Address and then join Macaster Gadgets.

Step 1: Find the MAC Address.

  1. Tap Settings.
  2. Press Gear info.
  3. Select About device.
  4. The MAC Address will be displayed.

Step 2: Register your watch on the Macalester College Device Registration Portal.

What Does Mac Address Stand For Computers

Step 3: Connect to Macalester Gadgets.

What Does Mac Address Stand For In Computers

  1. Tap Settings.
  2. Press Connections.
  3. Select Macalester WiFi.
  4. Enter the Wireless Password shown on the Registration Receipt.