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There’s no mystery in the IP address!

By admin on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 | No Comments

The Computer is a very complicated device we use for our every day comfort and the importance of some of its numerical aspects is sometimes neglected. For example: a different number is given to each computer when its user goes online or when it is part of a network. This number is the IP address and knowing about it is like knowing where you live?

What’s my IP and what do its numbers stand for?
IP stands for Internet Protocol and the address is formed from 4 numbers separated by periods. The IP address format is a 32 bit numeric one and each number can be from 0 to 255. The IP address consists of two parts: first one represent the network number and it is similar for more than one user (like the number of a street) and second represents the host name which is different for each user (like the house number). To increase the number of available IP addresses within big networks with a lot of users or small networks with few hosts, the address is divided into 4 classes (A, B, C, and D)

Having an IP address it’s like having a last name in a network. To identify a computer in a network (LAN-local area network, WAN-wide area network or on the Internet) it has to have an IP address. This number is similar to a phone number or to a zip code. It is unique and without it the device or computer can… Read the rest

Finding Your MAC Address On Wired And Wireless Network Cards

By admin on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | No Comments

The Answer To The Media Access Control Question
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Over the past few weeks I have received quite a few e-mails about Ethernet cards, both wired and wireless, and more specifically, about Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. I think the main reason I’ve received so many questions about Ethernet cards and MAC addresses is people trying to secure their home wireless networks and their desire to use MAC address filtering. This type of filtering in wireless networks can be configured to allow or deny specific computers to use or attach to the wireless network, based on the MAC address.

My first thought was to write an article just about MAC addresses and wireless Ethernet. After thinking about it I decided to expand on this and go over some specific information about Ethernet cards and communication.

Different Ways Of Finding Your MAC Address And More
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There are several ways of finding your Ethernet and communications protocol information. Many Ethernet card manufacturer’s have proprietary software that can reveal this information but they work differently depending on the manufacturer. So we will use the Windows 2000 and XP “ipconfig” utility since this is available in the majority of Windows Operating Systems.

First, go to “start” -> “run” and type “cmd” without the quotes. Then hit the enter key. At the command line type “ipconfig /all”, again without the quotes. Actually, just typing ipconfig without the /all will work but will only provide you with abbreviated information regarding your… Read the rest