18.6 Difference between Ethernet and Internet Addresses

18.6.1 Ethernet address

Ethernet addresses are assigned by the manufacturer and are arbitrary. This number is burned into the machine's ID PROM on the CPU board of all Sun workstations. It is composed of 6 1-byte fields for a total of 48 bits. This number is unique and is associated with a particular ethernet device. The values of the ethernet addresses for a subnet are kept in /etc/ethers, e.g.:

08:00:20:06:50:C2 ivy
08:00:20:06:AD:E4 nyssa
08:00:20:06:A3:4E gallifrey
00:00:A7:00:1D:4E bongo
08:00:20:07:9D:64 leela

A server requires this information in order to boot a diskless client.

Unix System Administration - 8 AUG 1996

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