I thought the whole point of IP was to avoid the problems of MAC addresses 'in the wild' - differring formats and the like? the switch that my box is connected to is the only other piece of equipment which needs to know my MAC address. Everything else is done through IP, or am I so far off base I should start knapping flints?
No, you are right to a point, but the ip address must be resolved to a mac address eventually (before the connection is made) just like a hostname is resolved to an ip address. As for mac addresses "in the wild", there is only one format. Each vendor (Intel, 3Com, etc) is assigned a range of addresses they can use. If I recall correctly this is the first two values in the colon or space delimited mac address (as they are usually displayed). The remainer of the address is assigned by the vendor with no two devices ever having the same mac addressed "burned in". A quick read through of the OSI model should serve as a good refresher and helps iron out what parts are used for what functions. I know I reread it every year or two! -- John LeMay KC2KTH Senior Enterprise Consultant NJMC | http://www.njmc.com | Phone 732-557-4848 Specializing in Microsoft and Unix based solutions