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NIC/MAC question

C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Does a PC (without NIC cicuitry) need a NIC to have a MAC address?

In other words, do computers without NICs (and before the advent of built in NICs on mobos) have physical addresses... What happens when one type in ipconfig/all on an "old machine"?
 
only a network card has a layer2 mac address.

no nic = no mac.

Basically the mac is the "burned in address" of the network card. Every network interface has a mac address and the are always unique throughout the world. (well, there have been times when there are duplicates, but they are supposed to be unique)
 
Caveman, some other devices like Firewire/1394 devices also have IEEE MAC addresses.

There are also things available in a PC.

What problem are you trying to solve?
 
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