Can anyone tell me what that Media Access Control address is for on the RaQ? Is it a Cobolt thing or is it on all servers. Is it something that comes set from the factory when you buy a RaQ?

Every ethernet card/chip has a MAC address, and set at the factory.

Ah, but what's it for?

It's somewhat complex, but here goes....

A router uses a MAC address to figure out which machine has which ip.

Webopedia has an explanation : http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/M/MAC_address.html but it just might confuse the heck out of you instead. LOL

You're right, it did confuse the heck out of me.

Where's the bird guy today?

The MAC address of a NIC card is set at the factory and it completely unique (supposed to be). It is 6 bytes long
and can be access in a windows machine by using the following in the command line:
NT/2000 - ipconfig /all
95/98 - winipcfg

This is controlled and used at the second OSI layer (media access control sublayer of the data link layer) which is responsible for frameing the packets that were created by the network layer (IP or IPX etc) and passing them to the bottom (physical) layer which converts it to binary and actually sends it over the network.

The MAC address is how second layer protocols connect with each other. Second layer protocols are Ethernet, Token Ring, PPP, SLIP, ATM, Frame Relay etc.

For any two computers to communicate on a network, the source compytuer must know the destination computer's MAC or physical address. This is not the IP or network address.

There is not configuation you have to do with a MAC address. I have two NIC's in my upstairs home computer, and the only way I can tell them apart is by the MAC address. It is hard caded into the card itself and is stamped on the card, usually on a sticker. It is 6 bytes long in hex and looks like this: 00-A5-59-00-BD-10. Each manufacturer is assigned a certain range of MAC address numbers and is supposed to use them in order as new cards are produced.


[Edited by Racin' Rob on 12-20-2000 at 10:28 PM]

Well..... now that's a good explanation..... :)

Quite! I'd say Racing Bob covered it pretty well, heh :)