IP and MAC addressing

1. Introduction

A local area network is a set of connected devices that can share data with one another. And the most popular protocol for enabling this exchange is called TCP/IP. The IP part stands for Internet Protocol.

But there is a problem - in order to exchange data, how does one device know the location of another device?

Well, the very simplest thing to do would be to give each one an unique identity in the form of a simple number. For example the green device could be called '1', the orange '2' and the blue '3'. Then they could swap information by attaching the correct address to each piece of information being exchanged.

But a local area network may also be connected to the internet - and it may want to exchange data with a device on another network, so a simple small number will not be enough.