MAC Address Vendor Identification

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:06:10 +0000

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – I recently purchased a new router… a Wireless N. I now have better signal, and my network is certainly flowing faster. I was looking at my router the other day, and saw that I had an unknown MAC address there. What?? Thankfully, I know how to discover the identity.

A MAC address is the short term for a Media Access Control address. Every device has one. It’s an identifier, so to speak. It is a number that acts like a name for a particular network adapter, so, for example, the network cards in two different computers will have different names, or MAC addresses, as would an Ethernet adapter and a wireless adapter in the same computer, and as would multiple network cards in a router.

Luckily, I knew there are websites that can help you figure out what the heck a particular MAC address belongs to. So, I copied down the MAC addy, and off I went to coffer.com. I typed in the MAC addy and voila! The site told me what vendor (manufacturer) this particular MAC address came from. Hmmm. Microsoft? What the…. ohhhhh, right! The XBOX360! Ponzi turned it on the other day and used it to watch a DVD. Therefore, it connected to the network. I went down and check the XBOX, and yep. That’s the offending device.

You can also spoof a MAC address if need be. Years ago I had a different ISP who only allowed one device on the network to access the internet. They knew I had no other choice, as I told them right up front. I manually spoofed my other MAC addresses to make them appear to be the same as the original computer. That way, everything on my network could still access the Internet. Being a home office kind of guy, I didn’t have much choice!

Be sure to stop by and visit us crazy people in the chat room, or drop me an email. I love hanging out with everyone, and I love to read your emails!

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MAC Address Vendor Identification

Chris Pirillo » MAC-address

MAC Address Vendor Identification