You have probably heard of two versions of IP address – IPv4 and IPv6. Visit NordVPN! MAC address exposed to the websites via IPv6 The website can not even know your router’s MAC address since it usually takes multiple hops via different devices to reach it.Įven though MAC can not be seen by the websites directly, there are few indirect ways to get it – extracting from your IPv6 and by running a script on your device. Using a VPN or not, the websites can not see your device’s MAC address simply because it is stripped off once your internet traffic leaves the router. In a long network chain, routers and other network equipment only know about MAC addresses of those devices that are directly connected to them. With each hop, the previous device’s MAC address is stripped off and replaced before sending any internet packets further. Then, once the router sends internet traffic outside the local network it strips off your devices MAC address and uses its own instead. When you try to access a certain website, your device and a router communicate over their MAC addresses on a local network. Let’s take a look at a graph on how devices communicate using MAC addresses:ĭevice communication over the network via MAC addresses A router holds this information in an ARP table where for each MAC address a local IP address is assigned. In many cases, there are multiple devices connected to the same network – laptops, phones or TVs, and in order for a router to know which internet packets belong to which device it keeps track of every device’s MAC addresses. This address never changes as it is burned-in by a manufacturer. It is used to identify a physical device (or hardware) such as a network interface card (or NIC) on a local network. E8:FC:AF:B9:BE:A2) and is unique to every device. MAC stands for Media Access Control which is an address that contains 12 symbols (ex. Let’s explore further what you need to know about it. It’s well known that a VPN can hide an IP address, but what about the MAC address? Can websites track it down or can it be seen on your router even when using a VPN? To answer these questions it is important to understand what the MAC address is and how do devices use it.
0 kommentar(er)
