For someone using a PC for the first time, it could sound complicated but that is really simple, just a little history, a couple of pics and you should know a thing or two about the MAC and IP. In order to make things simpler so that everyone could understand I am going to associate this article with cars.
For example, when cars were invented for the first time, do you think that they had a VIN number and a unique number ( plates ) ? I don`t think so, actually I know this for sure since there were no highways or police officers with radars. That`s right, because they wasn`t thinking at all of these at that time.
Older PC`s didn`t have a network card installed by default, if you wanted a network card you would have to buy it separately from a computer shop and after that to install it on your computer mainboard. Here is a picture that shows a network card being used by most of our computers computers ( desktops ) :
Nowadays, each computer has a network card and the network card allows your computer to have his own MAC (Media Access Control address (MAC address) and to obtain an IP address when he needs it. If you don`t have a MAC on your computer that means that your computer does not have a network card and you can`t have access to the Internet. Things has changed as the Internet evolved and the network cards were already incorporated on computer and notebook mainboards. Most of the network cards are being recognised by your Windows and that`s why 90 % of Windows users never installed a network card driver.
You have to know that each network card has a unique identification number called MAC, which is a unique identifier assigned to most network adapters or network interface cards by the manufacturer for identification. MAC can be changed but this is not the purpose of this article. The main difference between a MAC and a IP address is given by the fact that the IP address is acquired by your network card from your router or directly from your ISP ( Internet Service Provider ). When you don`t have an Internet connection, even if your network card is enabled in Windows you CANNOT have an IP address assigned.
Now, let me explain this as simple as possible:
Think about this: your PC ( computer ) is a car :
Your MAC is the VIN ( Vehicle Identification Number ) of your car. You can`t drive a car legally if you don`t have a VIN number which comes from the manufacturer of that car. You can change the VIN of a car and also you can change the MAC address of your computer. ( True )
Your IP is the unique number ( plates ) of the car for driving it legally.
As you can see, the things are simple, a car needs a unique number in order to circulate in a legal way in most of the countries. So it`s the same with an IP address, if you want to access the Internet you need an IP address. Why ? For many reasons, for identification, for standardization of Internet Protocols so that people like you and me to be able to communicate, it`s like an international language spoken by all network cards that are accessing the Internet. If everyone would create his own technology no one would be able to communicate. If you are speaking french and I speak english and another person speaks chinese how should we understand each other ? Now, an IP address can be either dynamic or static depending on your ISP technology and rules. A dynamic IP means that your IP will change each time you are connecting to the Internet while a static IP, as the name suggests, doesn`t change and it is permanently assigned to your PC by your ISP.
This is only a the theory part, but you can actually see the MAC and the IP address of your PC. If you`re using Windows you can find here the MAC and IP addresses of your computer.
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