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Computer Help Desk => Network Help => Topic started by: mbaldw on March 02, 2009, 08:50 hrs

Title: Connecting to Network Devices
Post by: mbaldw on March 02, 2009, 08:50 hrs
Hi folks,

Iââ?¬â?¢m hoping someone on here may be able to answer a question I was asked today.   Is it possible to connect to a network device using its MAC rather than its IP address?   I know that using an IP address is the conventional way of doing this, but someone asked me today if you could locate a device (say that had lost its IP address on the network) by connecting to its MAC and configure it remotely.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Marc.
Title: Re: Connecting to Network Devices
Post by: Buffalo2102 on March 02, 2009, 10:26 hrs
No, I don't think it can be done.

In order to understand it you need to be familiar with the OSI protocol stack model.  (http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_OSI_Stack.html (http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_OSI_Stack.html))  MAC addresses are assigned at layer 2 which is a basic addressing layer that allows (MAC) addressing and transfer of data packets between addresses.

IP addresses are used at layer 3.  In order to remotely configure a PC you would need to run some kind of application (remote desktop, VNC) and applications run at a higher layer.  You can't really run those sort of applications without going through layer 3 (having an IP address assigned).

I'm not an expert but that's my understanding.

Buff
Title: Re: Connecting to Network Devices
Post by: Mark H on March 02, 2009, 10:38 hrs
MAC addresses cannot be used per my knowledge. The only time I have used a MAC address is when giving a PC or device access to the wireless modem. The wireless modem uses mac addresses to identify PCs, but any connections are done with the IP address.

Mark H; I too am not a network expert.
Title: Re: Connecting to Network Devices
Post by: mbaldw on March 02, 2009, 11:32 hrs
Hi Guys,

thanks very much for the responses.   Apparently, it is possible to do something similar.   According to my work's IT dept (slow day in the office!), you can use the "arp" command to assign an IP address to any given MAC.   So, you'd use the command:

arp -s <IP address> <MAC>

The PC from which you typed the command would then think that the device with that MAC would have the specified IP and you could access it as normal against the IP you've assigned it.   So far as I can tell, this is only how the remote PC sees it, but it apparently allows you to manually configure devices remotely when they lose their IP address on the network.

Cheers,
Marc.
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