IP and MAC address

both are used to identify devices but have different use cases. ill go into in depth discussion on what they are into two seperate files so i can reference them in other files

• IP
• MAC

how they interact with eachother:

• ARP (Address resolution protocol):
  • ARP maps an IP to its corresponding MAC address on IPv4 networks. when a device needs to communicate with another device on a local network it broadcasts an ARP request and the device with the matching IP responds with its MAC address
  • ND (neighbor discovery): similar shit just for IPv6

differences:

• IP addresses are global identifiers used to communicate between networks while MAC addresses are local identifiers used to communicate directly between devices on a local network.
• IP addresses can change but MACs cant (they can be spoofed but usually they dont need to be coz the usual normie user doesnt need to change it like ever)