I've read that every Wi-Fi-enabled device has a Mac address. And all such devices have different Mac addresses.
My question:
1) Do only Wi-Fi-enabled devices have a Mac address?
2) How do manufacturers choose the Mac address? A laptop in Germany and a laptop in America and one in the manufacturing process in China can happen to have been assigned the same Mac address at the same time.
3) You can change the Mac address manually, at least on a laptop. Is this possible with every device with a Mac address? Why do you change the Mac address?
4) What if two devices have the same Mac address with me. Can both of them connect to the Wi-Fi at the same time without any problems?
5) What does the Mac address have to do with the IP address?
1) Do only Wi-Fi-enabled devices have a Mac address?
No, every network-compatible device has a MAC address, in this case the router.
2) How do manufacturers choose the Mac address? A laptop in Germany and a laptop in America and one in the manufacturing process in China can happen to have been assigned the same Mac address at the same time.
The address range is assigned. Prices for registering your own MAC address ranges can be viewed on an IEEE website. A separate MAC address block costs between 730 and 2905 US dollars (as of June 5, 2019). This address range can also be kept secret for an additional annual fee; it is then not known to others and you are not entered in a public database.
3) You can change the Mac address manually, at least on a laptop. Is this possible with every device with a Mac address? Why do you change the Mac address?
Good question. Actually, you only change it to ensure that a MAC address is not assigned twice in the network. But that should actually be guaranteed by the award policy.
4) What if two devices have the same Mac address with me. Can both of them connect to the Wi-Fi at the same time without any problems?
No, not under the MAC address. Only the first device would be operated, a second practically ignored or blocked.
5) What does the Mac address have to do with the IP address?
Actually nothing. However, both addresses are unique in the network. The network protocol determines which one is used. NetBios works with a unique name, TCP / IP with the IP and in WLAN, for example, MAC addresses can be allowed.
The number of network hardware devices with MAC addresses is likely to have exceeded the maximum possible number of devices in the new number range FF: FF: FF: FF, so that number ranges from 1980 are reassigned today because the hardware is no longer used today.
