(question) same MACs in wireless router

[James Knott]

William Park wrote:
> I thought they all have to be different.

MACs only have to be different on the local LAN.  WiFi and Ethernet are 
two separate LANs bridged by the access point.  Those MACs are also the 
same device, so there's no possibility of sending data to the wrong 
box.  I just checked my TP-Link WA-901ND access point and it also shows 
the same MAC for both WiFi and LAN sides.

Just a reminder for those who may have forgotten or never knew.  It is 
the MAC address that's used to carry traffic around the local LAN, not 
the IP address.  When a computer has to send data to another device on 
the local LAN, it looks up the MAC address for that IP address and then 
uses it to send the data.  The destination receives frames for it's MAC 
address and then verifies the IP address if needed.  When you send to a 
router, for forwarding elsewhere, the destination IP address is never 
the router's address.


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