

The OUI of some well-known manufacturers are as follow For example, the prefixes 00-13-10, 00-25-9C, and 68-7F-74 (plus others) belong to Linksys (Cisco Systems). And it's common in large manufacturers to have more than one set of OUIs. Sometimes, manufacturers possess several prefix numbers associated with their products. The IEEE is responsible for OUI distribution and issues it to their registered manufacturers.

It's the leftmost six digits (24 bits), also called prefixes, and is associated with the hardware manufacturer. What is an OUI MAC Address?Īn OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) is the part of the MAC Address that defines the hardware manufacturer. Note: Linux OS uses Colon-Hexadecimal notation, and Cisco Systems use Period-separated Hexadecimal notation. Period-separated Hexadecimal notation =.Colon-Hexadecimal notation = MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS.Hyphen-Hexadecimal notation = MM-MM-MM-SS-SS-SS.But, it's usually written in one of the following three formats. The 48-bit space means there are potentially 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC Addresses.Īlthough, different formats are there to write the MAC Address. Traditionally, 12-digit ( 6 bytes or 48-bit) hexadecimal number. Therefore, MAC Address is also called a Networking Hardware Address, Burned-in Address (BIA), Physical Address, or Ethernet Hardware Address. By default, that address is fed into the network hardware during manufacturing by its manufacturer. The Network Adapter or NIC always comes with the MAC Address, hardcoded and stored in its hardware, usually in its ROM (Read Only Memory) or BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The Media Access Control (sub-layer of the Data-Link Layer (DLC) of telecommunication protocols) uses that address. It identifies the hardware manufacturer and works along with IP Addresses for network communication between devices on the network. Thus, the MAC or Media Access Control Address is a unique identifiable address, usually printed on the network hardware of your key connected device. Here, the software address refers to IP Address, and the hardware address refers to the MAC Address tied with the network hardware of your key connected device called Network Adapter or NIC (Network Interface Card). To communicate between two networked devices, we need network software and hardware. One thing is common in both environments. Like the house with its postal address, every device on the internet has a unique MAC Address that identifies it on the network.Įither working on a wired or a wireless network. And can generate the four most commonly used MAC address formats in upper and lower case for your convenience. The tool provides the option to specify the custom prefix (OUI). The MAC Address Generator generates the random number of MAC addresses for your testing purposes.
