The Full form of MAC is Media Access Control Address. MAC address is a hardware identification number that uniquely identifies each device connected to a network. The MAC address is embedded into NIC (Network Interface Cards) in the computer such as a Wi-Fi card or an Ethernet card, at time of manufacturing by the vendor, so it cannot be changed. So, it is a hardware number of a computer, which is also known as a hardware address or a physical address of a network device.
The NIC (Network Interface Card) is a card in computer circuit that enables the computer to connect to a network. In this, the data is converted into an electrical signal that can be transmitted over the network. So, in a network, there is both an IP address and also a hardware address. IP addresses are related to TCP/IP, whereas MAC addresses are associated with the hardware of network adapters. So, MAC is considered as a computer’s unique hardware number, i.e., a unique identifier for network adapter or an Ethernet over a network.
There are plenty number of devices for network, so there must be many addresses as each is required to have a unique MAC address. Accordingly, MAC addresses comprise of six two-digit hexadecimal numbers separated by colons. For example, a MAC address of an Ethernet card can be 0e:22:c1:7d:76:E1.