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Identifying a Product/Vendor by its MAC Address

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Identifying a Product/Vendor by its MAC Address

The MAC address is the unique hardware address of any Ethernet or WiFi device. It's fixed to the hardware (at OSI Layer 2) as opposed to the IP address which is variable and is at the TCP/IP layer.

Sometimes a device will appear in an ARP table or some other log on your router or switch and you don't immediately recognise it. Often, knowing the vendor (manufacturer) will make it a lot easier. For example, if you are trying to distinguish between an iPhone, a Samsung Phone and a Toshiba TV, knowing the vendor from the MAC address will make that easy.

This is particularly helpful, for example when using the Bind IP to MAC function of most of our routers, whereby you can assign/register known devices (and exclude unknown ones).

Fortunately, within every MAC address the first two octets are (supposed to) identify the vendor. 

Look up a MAC Address

You can use the lookup below to identify vendors.

Please enter MAC addresses as 6 octets (without punctuation or separated by colons or dashes).

This lookup service is provided by MacVendors, so thank you to them.

The lookup may not always give useful results where a product is a generic/OEM device and the company badging it may not have applied for a unique MAC identifier, but it does work for most established/major brands.

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