Hex is used in mathematics and information technologies as a more friendly way to represent binary numbers. The letters are used because of the need to represent the values 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 each in one single symbol. These are the 10 decimal digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) and the first six letters of the English alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F).
As a base-16 numeral system, it uses 16 symbols. MAC Addresses of the range 33:33:xx:xx:xx:xx are reserved for IPv6 Multicast.The hexadecimal system (shortly hex), uses the number 16 as its base (radix).An Ethernet Switch will flood an Ethernet Frame with FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF as the destination MAC Address to all its connected ports.
MAC Address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF is reserved for Broadcast type of communication.Decimalįollowing are some important MAC addresses you need to remember. Refer the following table for easy conversion from binary to decimal and hexadecimal numbers. You can search for the OUI listings in following URLs. Refer below image to understand OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) part and NIC specific part of MAC addresses. Network Interface Controller specific number are assigned by manufacturer to the NIC. Next three bytes are Network Interface Controller Specific number. OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) numbers are assigned by the IEEE to te manufacturer. The first three bytes of the MAC address identifies the vendor who manufactured the product (Example: a NIC Card), and is known as OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier). Type the command "ipconfig /all" in the prompt and Enter.
CONVERT MAC ADDRESS TO HEX WINDOWS
To view the MAC Address of your network card when you are using Windows Operating System, run command prompt, cmd (Right-click Start > Run > type cmd and click "OK"). The first nibble 1010 from the left most byte in above example represent the first equivalent hexadecimal A in its hexadecimal representation, and the second nibble 1010 from the left most byte in above example represent the second equivalent hexadecimal A in its hexadecimal representation. In a MAC address, one hexadecimal digit resembles a group of four contiguous binary bits, called a nibble. MAC addresses are binary numbers which are represented in its hexadecimal equivalent. The scope of a MAC address is limited within a Local Area Network (LAN). MAC addresses are typically locally specific. MAC (Media Access Control) addresses are hard-coded into network adapter. MAC addresses are theoretically permanent numbers, which are burned into the network card.Įvery network adapter has a MAC (Media Access Control) address assigned to it when it is manufactured. The purpose of representing the binary address in hexadecimal format is to make it easier for humans to read and understand. Media Access Control (MAC address or Layer 2 addresses or physical address or hardware address) addresses are 48 bit (six bytes) binary addresses represented in hexadecimals.