Every electronic device that can connect to the internet and enable us to use the internet has more than one identity. These IDs are MAC address and IP address. The MAC Address specifies the identity of a device in the local network, while the IP Address specifies the global address of the device.
What is MAC Address?
MAC, that is, Media Access Control address, in short, are identities consisting of 128 bits of data that allow us to identify our devices in our local networks.
Today, devices with the internet can be connected to the internet either with ethernet cables or via Wi-Fi. Our modems identify the devices that connect to the internet with their MAC addresses and use them in the next internet connection request. For example, checking when connecting to a wireless network with your smartphone.
The MAC Address, specified with the hexadecimal number system, is 12-digit numbers consisting of 6 pairs.
Like IP addresses, there is a limit for MAC Addresses as well, ranging from 00-00-00-00-00-00 to FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF. The first half of the number is usually used as the manufacturer ID, while the second half contains the device’s identifying information.
In almost all corporate network devices today, whether it’s Wi-Fi or Ethernet, this number is hard-coded into the device during the manufacturing process (with the exceptions of changing the MAC address on modems).
Each MAC Address is unique to a device’s internet chip, but the number of bits identifying the device is limited, which means manufacturers reuse them. Each manufacturer has approximately 1.68 million available addresses. So when the MAC address ends with FF-FF-FF, it restarts at 00-00-00. This mandatory scenario is enforced because the probability of two devices with the same address being on the same local network is very low.
However, if this low probability is real, both devices will have problems connecting to the internet and will affect the DHCP server (in short, the local network IP address identifier) of the modem they are connected to.
How to find the MAC Address on Windows 10
- Right-click on the Start button and select Command Prompt from the menu
- Type in “ipconfig /all” and press Enter. Your network configurations will display
- Scroll down to your network adapter and look for the values next to “Physical Address,” which is your MAC address
What is an IP Address?
IP addresses are identifying identities that allow information to be sent between devices on a network. This ID contains location information and ensures that devices are accessible for communication. The Internet needs a way to distinguish computers, modem-routers, and websites. IP addresses fulfill this need and play a very important role in the way the internet works.
IP, which stands for Internet Protocol, was built on the IPv4 structure, which is still widely used today. However, due to the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 was developed and the whole world is now switching to this protocol.
What is IPv4?
In our country, the use of IPv4 is still a standard. IP addresses such as 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 allocated to our modems are used in many areas outside of our local networks. This IP structure is called IPv4. IPs in this structure are limited in number and are now at the point of exhaustion. For this reason, internet service providers had to develop various systems. This system, called CGNAT, can be briefly explained as the process of allocating a single IP address to multiple users. With this method, both the internet speed and the latency (ping) of the users are negatively affected.
The only solution to solve this problem is the widespread use of the IPv6 system. IPv6 is very different from IPv4. IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol), developed to provide a specific and unique address to devices on the Internet. For healthy communication on the Internet, each device using the Internet must have its own IP address. In this respect, it’s similar to the street addresses and zip codes you need to know to mail a letter.
The previous version, IPv4, was limited to 4.3 billion, as it used a 32-bit addressing scheme. However, with the increasing number of personal computers and smart phones on the internet and the addition of IoT (Internet of Things) devices that have just entered our lives, it has become clear that the world needs more internet addresses. With IPv6, this number increased to 340 undecillion (1036).
What is IPv6?
IPv6 is the name given to the new version of the Internet Protocol, which has been aiming to address the lack of IP addresses, which has come to the point of exhaustion due to IPv4, since 1998. On the other hand, despite its efficiency and security advantages, IPv6 has not yet fully entered our lives.
Most of the frightening threats of running out of web addresses have been eliminated. Because slowly but surely, the transition from Internet Protocol version 4 (Internet Protocol Version 4 – IPv4 ) environment to IPv6 environment has started. It was already known to many that IP addresses could run out one day, so this problem was tried to be avoided with additional solutions for IPv4 in addition to IPv6.
What are the benefits of IPv6?
The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) promises serious improvements in the IPv6 protocol compared to IPv4 in its work. The IPv6 protocol is now in a position to handle packets more efficiently, improving performance and security. In addition, it enables internet service providers to reduce the size of the tables by making their routing tables more hierarchical.
Network address translation (NAT) and IPv6
The adoption of IPv6 has been delayed in part due to Network address translation (NAT), which takes private IP addresses and converts them to public IP addresses. In this way, a company machine with a private IP address can send and receive packets to machines located outside the private network with public IP addresses.
Without NAT, large companies with thousands or tens of thousands of computers may have to consume huge amounts of public IPv4 addresses if they want to communicate with the outside world. However, there is a limit to these IPv4 addresses and we are close to that limit. At this point, NAT helps a lot to deal with the problem. With NAT, thousands of computers with private addresses can be served to the public internet by a specific NAT machine, such as a firewall or router.
Who in the world offers IPv6?
Carrier networks and ISPs were the first to begin integrating IPv6 into their networks. Later, this group was followed by mobile networks and interestingly, mobile networks became the leading group. For example, T-Mobile accesses over 90% of US traffic over the IPv6 protocol. This is followed by Verizon Wireless with a figure of 82%. According to data from the World IPv6 Launch industry group, Comcast and AT&T networks have 63% and 65% IPv6 connectivity, respectively.
Again, according to the World IPv6 Launch group, major websites seem to follow this trend as well. It is stated that 30% of the websites on the Alexa Top 1000 list are currently accessible over IPv6.
According to the Internet Society’s “State of IPv6 Deployment 2017” report, just under a quarter of businesses struggle to migrate to IPv6. Complexity, costs and excessive time to be spent are the main reasons for this situation. In addition, some projects are on the agenda due to software compatibility. For example, a January 2017 report revealed that a bug in Windows 10 has greatly hampered efforts to roll out an IPv6-only network at Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters.
When will IPv6 take off?
The Internet Community said that the price of IPv4 addresses peaked in 2018, but this increase will decline once IPv6 usage has passed the 50% threshold. Currently, according to Google, 20% to 22% of users worldwide use the IPv6 protocol. (This figure is around 32% in the US.)
According to a note posted on GitHub, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sold its IPv4 addresses and switched to IPv6 addresses. The University concluded that 8 million IPv4 addresses could be sold without impacting current or future needs, as 8 million of the existing IPv4 addresses are “overkill” and it also has 20 nonillion IPv6 addresses. (A nonillion is the number followed by 30 zeros.)
Also, as more deployments occur, more companies will start charging for the use of IPv4 addresses and offer IPv6 services for free. UK-based ISP Mythic Beasts said that “IPv6 connectivity is standard,” while IPv4 connectivity has now become an optional feature.
When will IPv4 end?
Between 2011 and 2018, most of the world ran out of new IPv4 addresses. However, IPv4 can still be used, as IPv4 addresses are sold and reused, and the remaining IPv4 addresses are used in IPv6 transitions.
There is no official shutdown date for IPv4. Therefore, people do not need to worry that their internet access will be cut off suddenly one day. The world will gradually abandon IPv4 as the transition to IPv6 increases, as more content sites support IPv6, and as more IPv6 supported network equipment is sold.
The IPv4 structure is still widely used in our country. As we mentioned above, many problems arise from the limitations of this protocol. Logging out many users from one IP address brings many problems, especially for gamers. The most important of these is not being able to open ports and being condemned to high latency.
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