Why we can't use MAC add. instead IP add [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23565105

  •  18-07-2023
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Question

I have seen for many kinds of security purpose or in the sense on kind of flexibility firstly IP to be considered as on most priority.

While in the case we have to prevent some user from some computer(IP) why we don't use MAC address instead of IP address while we can easily change our IP, so we don't to use MAC add?

Was it helpful?

Solution

MAC addresses are implemented at the data link layer of the network (layer 2) whereas IP addresses are implemented at the network layer of the network (layer 3).

As a comment pointed out, MAC addresses are no more secure than IP addresses and while additional barriers can be put up around addressing, they are still just addressing methods.

MAC addresses only have significance on the local area network and are used by devices such as switches to process frames of data.

IP addresses are part of the internet protocol and as such have been designed to travel across different networks. As such, this makes them suitable for routing and sending data across the world. By using services such as NAT (network address translation), multiple devices can share the same IP address to access external resources.

IP addresses are also often statically assigned to servers or networking equipment by system administrators and so IP addresses work much better for this purpose than MAC addresses.

IP was designed for inter-network data transfer and therefore it's features support this well.

MAC was designed for local area data linking over a physical medium.

It's all down to how they were designed, and what they were designed for.

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