Identify the manufacturer of a network device from its MAC address. Look up OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) data.
| OUI Prefix | Manufacturer |
|---|
A MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique 48-bit hardware identifier assigned to every network interface card (NIC). It's formatted as six groups of two hexadecimal digits (AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF). The first three bytes form the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) which identifies the manufacturer.
| Format | Example | Common In |
|---|---|---|
| Colon-separated | AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF | Linux, macOS |
| Hyphen-separated | AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF | Windows |
| Dot-separated | AABB.CCDD.EEFF | Cisco |
| No separator | AABBCCDDEEFF | Various |
Windows: Open CMD → type ipconfig /all → look for "Physical
Address". Mac: System Preferences → Network → Advanced → Hardware.
Linux: Terminal → ip link show or ifconfig.