Hardware (MAC) address

The hardware address -- often referred to as the MAC (Media Access Control) address -- is assigned by the adapter manufacturer and, under normal circumstances, is not configurable. By default, the Network Configuration Manager associates the adapter's hard-coded MAC address with the adapter driver. However, you can supply an alternate MAC address if you want to:

• use a non-UnixWare protocol stack, such as DEC-Net, that requires configurable hardware addresses

• enable ``hot sparing'', whereby non-functioning adapters can be replaced by preconfigured spare units without disrupting protocol stacks (this functionality is not currently available)

A MAC address consists of 6 hexadecimal numbers separated by colons. For example:

   00:00:c0:34:f1:52

See also:

• ndstat(1M) manual page

• ``Interpreting ndstat(1M) output''